Decisions
by Sniperk
Summary: What happens when the most right thing to do is not what a right person should do? When beliefs and persons lives go against one another, what is the best decision someone can make?
1. Chapter 1

Alright people. New story, new developments. Same ol'me. Which means that it will be a roller coaster ride in the quality. Yeah. I know, I suck. What else is new? I just like to put to paper (in this case, digital file), the ideas that keep popping up, so don't think too much of it and just read it.

Or don't. I had initially rated this 'M', and that was for a reason. It deals with some themes that can be offensive to some people, but after talking some with others, I decided to lower the rating back to 'T, 'since, even if it's borderline pushing the rating, it doesn't contain anything graphical or limey in it. Even so, I still recommend discretion. Anyway, too much talk and no story so let's get on with the show, shall we?

This is a slightly AU story, that uses a great amount of canon facts to tie everything together, so you could say that everything in canon is valid here, except for a few details, some minor, some major.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions  
**

**Chapter 1** - **Mother**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

"Carim." The sole word made the knight turn to her brother, who had just entered the room.

The look on his face was enough for her to know that whatever he had in that package he was carrying it wasn't something good. "Enter." After typing the translucent keyboard. "Schach, hold everyone that comes to visit. I believe that this will take a while."

"Understood, Knight Carim." The short haired answered, bowing in salute.

It had been already three months since the JS Incident, and it was also that the last time Verossa had come to greet his sister. "Lock the door." She said for him, as he backtracked two steps and did so.

"Remember what we talked about after the JS Incident?" He started after the blinds were shut.

"Yes. You read Uno's mind and in it was some information about Vivio's origins."

"Exactly. That information wasn't planted there as I tried to believe through these last months." He handed her the package. "Here are reports and video files that confirm it." He sat back. "Vivio is Nanoha's daughter."

* * *

"Mamaaaa." The blonde girl shouted at top of her lungs, from the edge of the training grounds, where her adoptive mother was coming back from the morning session with the forwards.

"Vivioo." The brunette waved. "Be right there."

The little girl hummed a response, even though her mother wouldn't hear it from such a distance. She holded the handrail with both hands and leaned her body back, watching curiosly as Vita typed away on various keyboards. After a few moments, the group got to them. "Good morning." She said bowing to the forwards.

"Good morning, Vivio." Subaru was the first to reply, and the others followed suit. "Are you having lunch with us?"

"No. Nanoha-mama promised Fate-mama and me that we would go shopping today." The girl beamed, while Nanoha had a wry half laugh.

"Okay. Bye then." The others turned in the direction of the main base, leaving the trio behind.

Nanoha turned to her daughter. "I'll be finish things quickly okay, Vivio. Just be a good girl and wait a little." She started to type away on her keyboard too.

Moments later, the girl jumped to her feet and dashed away from the two. "Mamaaaa!" Nanoha perked up from her windows, thinking that the girl was calling for her, only to see the other blonde kneeled with arms open to welcome the little hug that was a few feet away.

"Vita-chan." Nanoha turned to her smaller friend. "Is everything in order?" She said this as the other two approached, Vivio being carried by Fate.

"Subaru still need work on her speed, Caro needs work on her reaction response, Teana on her shields and evasion skills, and Erio need more combat experience, other than that, everything is fine."

Fate sweat-droped, looking at the little Belkan Knight. She noticed this. "What?"

"You have been spending way too much time with Nanoha." At this, she grabbed the said girl by the wrist and turned on her heels. "Let's go."

Vita stood there, watching the scene for another ten seconds before replying again. "What?"

They circled the base to the parking lot, reaching Fate's car.

"Be a good girl now, okay, Vivio?" The blonde said, as she sat the girl in the backseat and fastened her seat belt.

"Hmn." The girl beamed, hands trailing the fabric of the belt.

Fate got out of the passenger seat side, to allow Nanoha to enter and circled the car. When she seated herself she continued. "We're going to eat ice cream today, okay?"

"Yay." They shared a high five.

Fate heard the sound of someone forcefully clearing her throat, before she turned to the passenger seat and looking at the displeased look on Nanoha's face. She then turned to the little girl behind again. "Ops. Busted." She playfully put her tongue out.

"Where not going to have fun, Fate-chan. Vivio needs winter clothes. She doesn't have any, and it's getting colder and colder every day." The brunette fumed, trying her hardest not to seem pleased by the turning of events. In fact she was glad she could spend some quality time with her little girl outside the base.

"Okay, okay." Fate smiled warmly. "We'll do that."

"Good."

Fate revved the engine and geared first. "After that, we're gonna hit the town" And sped up through the parking lot.

* * *

"What a surprise. What can I do for you today, Carim?" The Commander asked when the knight appeared on the monitor.

"Good to see you too, Hayate." She greeted, smiling. "How are things around?"

"Nothing much. We've been mostly just in stand-by since the incident."

"I see." The expression of the blonde changed to a more serious one. "Is Captain Nanoha there?"

"No, today she's off shift. Although I did see her on the training grounds this morning." Hayate mused. "Why do you ask?"

"Good." The knight ignored Hayate's question. "Can you come to the Saint Church? There's a matter we need to discuss."

"Sure, okay." Hayate shifted in her seat, noticing certain uneasiness on the other countenance. "Is something the matter?"

"We'll discuss once you arrive." Carim sighed out. "It would be better if Captain Nanoha doesn't know about this meeting."

Hayate nodded, , still confused, but understanding the tone of urgency in Carim's voice. "Very well. I'll be right there." At this she cut the call.

"What could have happened?" Hayate mused. "Rein, please, can you deal with my paperwork for today?"

"Yes, Hayate-chan." The silver haired device floated from her mini-desk to Hayate's.

"If there's anything you can't handle, call Griffith-kun, or leave it for me when I come back, okay?"

"Yes."

* * *

Upon arriving at Carim's office that doubled as her guest room, Hayate noticed that the door behind her was locked by Sister Schach, and the blinds were slowly closing.

"Have a seat." Carim offered to the girl. "Tea?"

"Yes, thank you, Carim." Hayate sat there. "What was so urgent?"

"Before we start, I need to make sure of some things. Do you believe in everything Captain Nanoha has said to you over the past years?"

Hayate looked puzzled at the question. "I don't understand? What do you mean?"

Carim took a sip of her tea. "Let me rephrase it. Do you know everything about Captain Takamachi Nanoha?"

Hayate rolled the question around her head. "I wouldn't say I know everything. Everyone have things others don't know about. I think she, too, have some things I don't know about."

"Even so, would you still be her friend, despite knowing that something wasn't right?"

"I... think so. It would depend, of course." She shifted in her seat. "But generally speaking, yes. I'm one of her best friends."

Carim sighed relieved at that remark. "Good." She signaled for the others on the room to approach the table. Hayate hadn't even noticed them till that moment.

"Hello." The green haired man turned to her, waving.

"Good afternoon." The raven haired one echoed. "How are you, Hayate?"

"I'm okay, Chrono-kun." She then looked at everyone on the table. "What's this about?"

Chrono shrugged as Carim started again. "I had just asked similar questions to Admiral Chrono a few moments before you came. What we're about to tell you two is something that may change everything you know, or thought to know."

The blonde signaled to her brother, for him to start. "Towards the end of the JS Incident, I captured one of the combat cyborgs, Uno. When I scanned magically her mind, I came across a handful of information that I didn't reported officially, because to be frank, I couldn't believe it myself. I wanted to investigate this matter thoroughly before going disclosing it to you two, since it involves not only Nanoha, but three of yours major supporters in creating Riot 6." A window popped up on his side, with the image of three old persons, that the other two recognized instantly. "The three Admirals." He pulled a package from inside his inner coat pocket and fished in it. "These reports exists only on paper, since most of them were deleted from the databases." He handed the reports to them. "I believe it would be more practical to just show them to you two. Some of them you'll recognize, I believe, but let me present them in a timely fashion to prove my point."

Upon hearing undestanding sounds from the others he started. "First these three."

* * *

**Field Report**  
**Date:** 07-02-68  
**Mission:** Investigation  
**Local:** Bureau Administrated Planet 38 - Urd  
**Coordinates:** 10-AH-32-123-GR-NH-11-332  
**Objective:** Locate and Analyse signal. Proceed with sealing it if it's deemed harmful.  
**Start: **18:00 SDT (Standard Dimensional Time)  
**Finish:** 18:45 SDT

At eighteen hundred hours the unit was dispatched to the location. Signals were stronger near the source. While narrowing scans to the probable location of the signal the unit was attacked by unknowns. The mission control gave authorization to retaliate. The enemy units were mechanic with arachnids form, with six limbs used to movement and two bladed ones used for attack. Enemy have stealth capabilities, being able to make a surprise attack. After the first attack it seems it's unable to use it again. It has a type of field that deflected and nullified our bombardment attacks. Changed the pattern of attack to use fisical hits. It proved effective against the enemys. Total count of units. 54. The last unit was the one that injured Private Takamachi.

Seargent Vita  
TSAB Ground Forces

* * *

**Medical Report  
Date:** 07-02-68  
**Time:** 21:12 SDT  
**Local:** Clanagan Medical Center - Intensive Care Unit  
**Patient:** Private Level 1 Takamachi Nanoha  
**Visual exam:** Injuries by sharp object sustained to the back passing through the lower torso. One stab passed through her back to the chest. The other entered through the lower back but it wasn't as profound. Blood loss.  
**Detailed exam:** Spine injury. Concussion. Severe Blood loss. Possible Cerebral Damage.  
**Actions Performed:** Anesthetized. Transfusion. Magical healing of internal organs. Cirurgy.  
**Condition:** Stable. Induced Comatose State.

The patient arrived via teleport at the Medical Center. Performed visual exam during the transport of her to the ICU. Heavy blood loss due to injury in her torso. Transfusion was initiated during the transport. Anesthesic administrated in the ICU. Magic Med team performed healing spells in the internal organs of the patient. Bones and external injuries treated via fisical contact.

Lieutenant Van Del Deppio  
TSAB Ground Forces - Medical Unit

**

* * *

**

**Medical Report  
Date:** 07-20-68  
**Time:** 13:12 SDT  
**Local:** Clanagan Medical Center - Intensive Care Unit  
**Patient:** Private Level 1 Takamachi Nanoha  
**Exams performed:** Blood examination, X-Ray and CT. Counterproof.  
**Condition:** Stable. Induced Comatose State.

The condition of the patient is stable. Blood exams suggested that the patient is inseminated. Counterprooff confirmed. It's puzzling since the exams also confirm that the patient never had intercourse.

Lieutenant Van Del Deppio  
TSAB Ground Forces - Medical Unit

* * *

**Video Recording**  
**Date:** 07-20-68  
**Time:** 14:03

_Opening File..._  
_Playing Vídeo..._

"What?!" The man spat his coffee at the translucent monitor in front of him. "It can't be!" He waved his hand over the keyboard. "Mariel. Contact me immediatly with Lieutenant Del Deppio."

"Yes, sir."

"And while you're at it, I want everything that we know about Private Takamachi Nanoha."

"Yes, sir."

He closed the window. Few moments later, another popped up, with the information he asked for. Skimming trough it he slammed his fist against the table. "Shit. She's only 12." Another window with a waiting call appeared.

"Lieutenant Van Del Deppio reporting, sir." The man said, saluting.

"Lieutenant, are these reports on Private Takamachi for real?"

"I'm affraid so."

"How long is she?"

"Around two weeks, sir."

"She was already hospitalized?"

"No, sir."

Few moments of silence. "Be in my office at 16:00 sharp. I'll need you to explain some things."

"No problem, sir."

He hung up and called his secretary again. "I need you to get in contact with the Chief of Staff Mizetto, General Ralgo, and Advisor Fils. We need to hold an emergency meeting." The woman seemed uneasy for a moment. "If they ask for details, transfer the calls directly to me."

"Yes, sir."

_End of file_

* * *

**Video Recording**  
**Date:** 07-20-68  
**Time:** 16:22

_Opening File...  
Playing Video..._

"So what are our options?" The General voice was heard after several minutes of funeral silence. Currently they were holding a meeting in his office.

"I have no idea, sir." The Lieutenant answered. Appearing to be intimidated by the military ranks of the three old folks that were in the room in that moment.

"Abortion?" The only woman in the room asked. Her tone uncharacteristically sullen.

"If we try that now, with her body the way it is, the probability of death is ninety percent."

"And after she recovers?"

"It's hard to tell. Her injuries are severe, and she'll take at least six months to be able to even feel her limbs again."

"By that time, the abortion will not be an option anymore." Fils noted.

"But if we let her bear a child, this will be a major blow on the morale for TSAB's Armed Forces. They've been here for less than three years and the number of cadets, inspired by the three of them, that joined the lines is increasing at an incredible rate." Ralgo said.

"She's just a child herself." Mizetto sighed. "What can we do then?"

"I see only two options." Fils started, after reviewing again the material that was presented to him. "The first we let her bear the child and try to raise her popularity, along with the TSAB's."

"We can't have that." Mizatto interrupted. "If we say that is okay for a child to bear another child then we'll have pubic riots from all kinds, from Child Protectors to little girls wanting to have children too." She let out a tired sigh. "No to mention that we're already under severe pressure about having pre-teens in our ranks."

"The second option will be more difficult to arrange. We let her have the child." When the woman made mention to intervene again he raised his hand. "We let her have the child, and separate them as soon as she gives birth. We'll send the kid to some far away planet, in the outskirts of the Juristiction."

"Why don't we kill the child." The General said but seemed to regret soon afterwards as the others turned to him with rather displeased looks.

"We don't kill. We save." Ralgo's voice was heard.

"This is one of the main reason's the TSAB created a magical society, and don't rely anymore on physical weapons." Fils added.

"We need to work on the details for this." The General said.

"How are we gonna make her let go of the baby?" The Lieutenant asked. "Generally mothers don't relinquish their babies just because they're asked to."

"She'll never know that she had a baby to begin with." Fils continued. "Let me get everything out right now, after we can workout the minor details, okay?" He got nodded responses from the others. "First, we have to let the bare minimum possible number of people know about this situation. We'll need to move her from the medical center to somewhere else. Lieutenant, since you are already involved, I believe we'll have to trust on your judgment here to select your team."

"But I..." He tried to start, then the advisor raised his hand for him to stop, but the Lieutenant proceeded anyway. "...I'm not an obstetrician. I'm a emergency doctor."

"Please. You can select one, then. You'll have all the support from the presents here, now let me continue." The Lieutenant nodded again. "She'll stay in comatose till the date the baby is due, or till the time it's safe for her to have a caesarean. During this time we'll input through subliminar message that she's trying hard on her rehabilitation, this way, once she wakes up, it will be like nothing happened."

"But there's post-birth exams, and since she's so young, might be complications..."

"She'll be twenty-four-seven on medical observation, for cryin' out loud. Don't interrupt me." He fumed. "...where was I? Ah, we'll make her wake up only after all the post-birth examinations are done. Happy?" He looked disdainfully at the doctor. "The next issue is her family and friends. Well, her family is from Non Administrated Planet 97. She doesn't have any relatives here on MidChilda, so the problem will be her most close friends."

"Fate T. Harlaown, Yagami Hayate and the Wolkenritter." The General input.

"Add to them Admiral Leti, Admiral Lindy, Officer Cadet Amy and Yuuno Scrya." Mizetto added. "How will we be able to make her unavailable to all of them during all this time?"

"Let's start with Private Fate. She's schedulled to retake her Enforcer exams next week, if I'm not mistaken."

The General summoned a screen, and after hitting a few keys he confirmed. "Yes. She failed her exams, and normally, someone would need to wait six months to retake them, but apparently, she got some help and will be able to retake the exam on short notice."

"She'll pass this exam." The advisor adjusted his glasses.

"We can't be sure of..."

"You didn't understand." Gazing as though he could pierce metal with it. "She'll _pass_ this exam." He enphasized. "She'll become an enforcer and'll be sent immediatly to a long, long training mission."

Since no one seemed to add anything he continued. "Moving on. Yagami Hayate and her unit." He looked around to his two older companions.

"I think we need to make a trip around the TSAB's monitored planets to make sure everything is well, personally." Ralgo said.

"And for that..." Mizetto picked up. "...we'll need strong bodyguards. I don't see anyone more suitable than Yagami Hayate's unit."

"As for the others, we'll set up a visiting schedule, but will make it look like Private Takamachi doesn't want them around, so they can only look at her behind some screen. Of course, the images will be compositions, most of the time." Fils continued.

"The real problem will be the librarian." The General added. "He's good at hunting information, and has a quick eye for things like fakes and such."

"We'll flood him with requests for investigations and on scene excavations." The advisor took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "The important thing is that this information is to die with us. Lieutenant, erase all information pertinent to the pregnancy from the records. Prepare her to be transported tomorrow morning. She'll receive the best recovery grounds we can find in all TSAB's jurisdiction."

_End of File.  
_

* * *

**Medical Report  
Date:** 01-07-69  
**Time:** 08:00 SDT  
**Local:** Special Rehabilitation Unit (Undisclosed)  
**Patient:** Undisclosed  
**Condition:** Stable. Induced Comatose State. Rehabilitation through mechanical means progressing as normal.

Counterproff of DNA exams confirm that the baby don't carry any genetic material similar with the mother. Suspicion of insemination during sustained injury to the lower torso.

Lieutenant Van Del Deppio  
TSAB Ground Forces - Special Unit

**

* * *

Medical Report**  
**Date:** 02-04-69  
**Time:** 07:24 SDT  
**Local:** Special Rehabilitation Unit (Undisclosed)  
**Patient: **Undisclosed  
**Condition: **Stable. Induced Comatose State. Rehabilitation through mechanical means progressing as normal. In-Depth subliminal message progressing as normal. Labor.

Patient entered labor at two-twenty-one. Preparations for a Ceasarian started. Vital signs from both mother and child all green.

**Update:** Time: 08:01 SDT

Baby girl born. Mother and child signals green.

Lieutenant Van Del Deppio  
TSAB Ground Forces - Special Unit

**

* * *

Field Report  
Date: **02-04-69  
**Time: **09:32 SDT  
**Mission:** Escort  
**Local:** Undisclosed  
**Coordinates: **Undisclosed  
**Objective:** Transport a newborn baby to the Saint Church Orphanage.

Received the newborn at nine-thirthy. Identity of the baby girl is unknown. Born from a mother that had brain death. No relatives were found. Transportation started at nine-thirthy-five.

Seargent Sarah Ballak  
TSAB Ground Forces

**

* * *

Field Report  
Date:** 02-04-69  
**Time:** 12:56 SDT  
**Mission:** Investigation  
**Local:** Administered Planet 23 - Lopes  
**Coordinates:** 34-HU-76-943-HT-DE-454-212  
**Objective:** Locate Seargent Ballak's Unit

Located the remains of Seargent Ballak's unit at thirteen hundred hours. Wreckage and scene preliminary investigation suggests ambush. Located Seargent Ballak's body at thirteen-ten. About seventy-percent of her head was cut clean. Other integrants of the unit found with similar wounds, by sharp object. No one remained alive. No signal of the cargo was found.

Ensign Huiash  
TSAB Navy - Rescue Unit

**

* * *

Field Report**  
**Date:** 03-03-69  
**Time:** 13:01 SDT  
**Mission:** Escort  
**Local:** Administered Planet 23 - Lopes  
**Coordinates:** 37-HU-88-943-HT-DE-441-200  
**Objective:** Escort Private Takamachi Nanoha from rehabilitation facility on Lopes to the one on MidChilda.

Transport started at thirteen hundred hours. Escorts accompanying the patient include Doctor Shamal, Seargent Vita, Master Seargent Signum and Enforcer Fate T. Harlaown. Private Takamachi was concious through the better part of the preparations to the transport but as of the moment of writing is asleep. Vitals deemed normal as stated by Doctor Shamal. Nothing out of ordinary.

**Update:** Time: 19:23 SDT  
Arrival at Clanagan Medical Center - Rehabilitation Unit at eightteen-forty hours. Transportation completed.

Lt. Yagami Hayate  
TSAB Ground Forces

**

* * *

Recording  
Date:** 03-03-69  
**Time:** 08:00

_Opening file...  
Playing Vídeo..._

"How are gonna investigate this matter without revealing too much?" The man asked the other three in the monitors.

"We won't." The Advisor said evenly. "According to the reports, she doesn't have any genetic connection with the baby, she isn't aware of it either. We'll just transport her back to the rehabilitation unit and act as normal. Even if someone try to use the baby as a means to act against us, they'll have no proof."

"But suspicions would arise about the matter, since no one has officially seen her in all this time."

"She'll testify against it, and her friends will support her. We'll simply use their bond for this."

"But what about the ones that are already know the truth? Lieutenant Del Deppio and his team?"

"We'll deal with him." He took a deep breath. "One way or another."

_End of file.  
_

* * *

**Field Report  
Date:** 04-06-69  
**Time: **22:03 SDT  
**Mission:** Arrest  
**Local:** Administered Planet 23 - Lopes  
**Coordinates:** 37-HU-88-943-HT-DE-441-200  
**Objective:** Arrest a unit of rebels that took over one of the TSAB facilities. Deemed dangerous. Authorization for use lethal weaponry conceded.

Arrival at the facility at twenty-two hundred hours. Strike team entered the front door. Tactical team entered through the ventilation system. Targets resisted prison. Used lethal weaponry to subdue targets. At twenty-two-fifteen, targets were silenced. No survivors.

Cl. Mark Claus  
TSAB Air Forces - Special Squad

* * *

Hayate was speechless. Chrono wasn't faring much better.

"Now, after investigating the matter, I came across one of Del Deppio relatives. She wasn't about to share any information with me, but after some time she called me. She had received most of these from Del Deppio himself. He was sure that his life wasn't exactly safe, so he collected this data, but thankfully, the woman followed his instructions and never opened the envelope."

Several minutes passed, with Hayate going again through the reports and Chrono with arms crossed, both trying to digest the information that had being just thrown at them.

Carim was the one to break the silence. "Now, with that information, do you still believe in your friend?"

* * *

A/N: Not much to say, just that this will be updated whenever. Reviews, please. It's the green link right below. *-*


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews, guys. Here's some more. To be honest, I still don't have the slightest idea of how things are going to turn out. Let's find out together, then, okay?

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters in here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 2 - Daughter**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

"Yay!" The heterochromatic girl jumped up, beaming to her mother as soon as she noticed what the brunette was holding. "Ice cream!"

"It's just this time, okay? But you have to promise me that you'll be a good girl for the rest of the day, or else I'll not give it to you."

"Hmn." Vivio answered, nodding, not really paying attention to the implications.

Nanoha sat beside her daughter with a grunt, closed her eyes and took a long intake of air.

"What's the matter?" Asked her redeyed friend.

"It's nothing. Just tired I guess."

"Nightmares again?"

"I don't really know. It's just... I can't shake this feeling that something bad is about to happen." She smiled sheepishly. "Guess I'm becoming paranoid, huh?"

Fate took a better look at her friend but didn't notice much. "You should go see Shamal when we return to the base if you're not feeling well."

"No need. I'm okay. Just a little tired. There's no need to..." Fate glared at her. "...okay, okay. I'll go." She sighed.

The blonde beamed. "Good. Now," She pulled a notepad from her purse. "we already bought almost everything on the list. We just need shoes and socks and we'll be done."

"Okay..." Nanoha answered half-heartedly, but immediately corrected herself. "Okay!" But that didn't get past Fate, even if she let the matter go for the moment.

* * *

"OF COURSE!" Hayate shouted, getting up and slamming her hands on the table, along with the reports. That tone in Carim's voice wasn't even making sense . "She was... She was... She was..."

"She wasn't aware of anything." Chrono tried to complete.

"That's it! There's no way that I, we wouldn't believe in her for something like that!"

Carim let out a sigh. "Finally." Then gazed at them and smiled gently.

Both of them looked at the woman in surprise.

"When the facts are lay in the open, some people may think differently, that's why I needed to make sure you weren't going to act on impulse."

"Why's that?" Hayate asked, a tinge of anger still in her voice, even if confusion was still taking the most part of it.

Carim nodded to Verossa. He fished his inner pocket again, getting another DVD. "The real issue is this."

* * *

**Recording  
Device: **Just  
**Owner:** Sarah Ballak  
**Date:** 02-04-69  
**Time:** 10:32

_Opening File..._  
_Playing Audio...  
_  
"This is Seargent Sarah Ballak, requesting backup." In the background, a baby's crying can be heard. "Our transport was attacked during mission. Were under severe fire. Other members of the unit were shot down. I repeat, this is Seargent Sarah Ballak requesting backup..."

There was interference in the audio that lasted through a good thirty seconds until a new voice was heard.

"Is she dead?"

"If she was alive after that, then she would be more than just a transporter." A second voice answered.

Ten infinite seconds later. "Is this it?" A third voice asked.

"Yes. The Sankt Kaiser. The golden hair and mismatched eyes are proof, and the magical reading is a match. It's her alright." The second voice answered.

"Our king has finally come. The Doctor will be delighted." The first one answered.

More stactic was heard.

_End of file._

* * *

"Wait." Chrono was the first of the two to finally process the information. "The girl... Nanoha's baby... was Vivio?"

"Yes." Carim answered. "At least that is what all the evidence is pointing to."

"We'll need to confront Scaglietti himself to get answers." Hayate continued.

"But I still don't see the issue. For what it's worth, Vivio was Nanoha's daughter, even before we got to know any of this. I don't see any reason why we should keep this from her." Chrono pondered.

Hayate looked firmly on Carim eyes during a few moments. "No. I believe this it's best this way." Then turning to the Admiral, she tried to explain her thoughts. "Nanoha-chan is caring, kind and selfless. Too selfless. Remember when Vivio was taken by Scaglietti during the Peace Conference? Nanoha-chan didn't have a breakdown because she had us with her. Now imagine what thoughts would pass through her mind the moment she received this information. She would try her best to make it up to Vivio, even if she wasn't aware, even if she didn't have a choice in the matter, she would still feel guilty for not knowing, still grieve over the fact. Even if she was powerless to stop it, it would haunt her. Then she would see Vivio at her side and it would warm her, but she would feel guilt again, repeating the cycle. In time this would break her completely."

They let the information sink in for a few more seconds. "But we still need to confront those old bastards about this." Chrono snapped, trying hard not to think about the matter of Nanoha.

"Let..." Hayate's voice broke, but she managed to steady herself. She took a deep breath. "Let me handle this for now. I... I need time to think about all scenarios before I can make a decision."

Carim got up from her seat and walked to the side of the brown haired girl, pulling the younger to her boson in a loose hug. "We'll be here for you. And for her. We always have and always will."

Hayate looked at the golden haired eyes and let her head rest on the older woman's chest. A lump came to her throat. "I..." She fight it to remain there. "I don't know what I should be feeling right now." A sob escaped. "I'm angry at them for having lied to us this whole time." Another one came accompanied by the tears starting to roll down her eyes. "I'm happy that Nanoha-chan, even without knowing, got reunited with her daughter." Tears flowing down now were and understatement. "I'm sad that she couldn't be with her... all this time." Hayate broke off, crying.

After a few minutes, the commander was presentable again, not well, but she could manage to get out of the office. "Are you certain about wanting to go back to the base?"

"Yes." She breathed heavily. "I need time... to think." She waved to the others in the room, gave a soft hug on the blonde that accompanied her to the door and left.

"Schach." Carim spoke to the holografic screen that popped on her side. "Escort Commander Yagami to Riot 6's base, please."

"Acknowledged, Knight Carim." The woman in the screen bowed, before it faded.

Carim turned to the other two and got back to her chair.

"Was it really necessary to make us watch this, while doubting Nanoha?" Was Chrono's first remark.

"As a matter of fact, yes." The inspector answered. "We know what you are feeling because we have too. If we didn't doubted her first, this information would never be uncovered, because it was doubt that pressed me forward." He grinned, leaning back on his chair. "But then again, I wouldn't be much of an Inspector if I didn't doubt things around me, don't you agree?"

Chrono sighed. "Yes, I believe so."

"She's still the same girl. The same Ace of Aces you guys have known through all these years." Carim spoke.

"We'll really need to confront Scaglietti again, don't we?" The Admiral asked, rhetorically.

"Yes, We do." Verossa answered even though he noticed the nature of the question. "Because there's another matter to think about too."

Chrono lifted his right hand and rubbed both temples while covering his eyes. "I don't know if I can handle another bombshell, you know?"

"You'll have to." Carim spoke, sounding firmer than usual for her image.

"Okay." Chrono grunted. "What is it?"

"Is Nanoha-san really Vivio's mother?" Verossa said, letting a confused Admiral looking at him dumbfounded.

* * *

"Alright!" The redhaired said, as soon as the others got back from the lap around the base. The field was set to a forest. "We'll do a mock battle now." Upon hearing complaining sounds from everyone, she tilted her head, grinning. "What? I'll make it easier for you, newborns." She starts to draw a circle in the ground, with about a twenty feet radius, while explaining. "If you manage to knock me out of this circle, even once, even by a hair, you win. To further your advantage, I'll not fly on this battle. Is that good enough to you?" She positioned herself in the middle of it. "Tell me when you're ready."

The four forwards gather in a semi-circle, with their backs to their teacher. "Any ideas?" Teana's the first to question.

"Vice-Captain Vita is being cocky, don't you think?" Subaru commented. "We're not rookies anymore. We can knock her out of that place in one shot."

Teana clanged Cross Mirage on the back of her head. "Are you stupid? If she's saying that, at minimum, she's confident about it."

"Then what should we do?" Caro pondered.

Erio looked at the circle and their teacher before turning to the others again. "Look, she's in the middle of a circle. It's the same distance from wherever. We just have to pressure her into going to one side and keep pressing till she falls."

"It's a good idea, but she'll probably catch on to that quickly. We need to do this at full power from the beginning."

"Yeah." The others answered.

"Ready, newborns? Then let's get this started." Vita said, before summoning her knight's garb. "I'm waiting." She said tapping Graf Eisen on her shoulder.

"Follow my lead." Teana sent mentally to the other three.

They entered in formation. Immediately after, Subaru started to run full speed towards her instructor. "Load Cartridge." A few more yards she yells again. "Revolver Cannon!"

Her glove collided against Vita's barrier, making sizzle noises come out of it, as her rollerblades continued to press forward, despite not moving from the same place, creating a cloud of dirt behind her. Vita did not move an inch from her spot, as if planted in place. "Good output." The redhaired said, with one arm extended, maintaining the barrier. Suddenly she sidestepped, undoing the barrier, making the blue haired girl pass through the place she was a moment before. "But you have to control when to stop it, else, you're a sitting duck." She said as she hammered the girl in the back making her gain even more momentum.

Moments before Subaru hit a tree that was on her way Mach Calliber called "Wing Road." A blue magical road appeared before her turning into a half-circle, helping her use the kinetic energy she just gained, to come back at the Vice-Captain.

"In the name of peace, wings of hurricane, bestow upon this knight the power to break through." Caro started to chant.

"Boost Up. Acceleration." Her device responded, as pink ball of energy floated in front of the girl.

"Cross Fire..." Teana called as various orange balls of energy gathered around her.

"Surround and whisper, O'Light of Prayer that gives power." The summoner continued.

"Boost up. Strike Power." Kerykeion answered and another pink energy ball hovered on her master's hand.

"Shoot!" Teana called. At this her energy shots started to fly in the direction of their teacher.

"Twin boost. Dash and Strike." Caro called at last, using the energy she collected on Erio's device.

Immediately he started to sprint forward, with Strada calling "Explosion" as two cartridges are loaded.

Vita looked at their formation through the clearing dust, with Erio on front, Strada pointing in her direction, and smirked. She raised her hand to her back, creating a new barrier, to stop Subaru's strike. When it collided she used her other hand to create another barrier, to defend against the others attack, but little ways from hitting her, they disappeared. Immediately she switched her footing and put her hand to the direction the blue haired girl was coming, strengthening her previous one handed barrier, at the same time as the orange energy shots and a boosted Strada collided against it. The impact made her feet create a trail in the ground, forcing her back. When she was about to hit off the circle, she did a front flip, wich made the two of them pass through where she once was again. After they stopped, she turned to them. "Phew. Not bad. Your use of the Silhoutte is getting better, Teana."

She started walking again to the center of the circle when she heard Caro's voice. "Fried. Blast Ray! Fire!" This almost got the knight of guard, as she had to rely on her device to create a barrier for her, even so, it made her get to the edge of the circle.

"Load Cartridge." She heard Subaru at her back and the redhaired call for Strada before it loaded two cartridges. She was almost cursing now. They were really into it today.

She raised a shield again, but was surprised when both Subaru and Erio passed through her sides, making a hundred-eighty degree turn on her back and striking again. "Good perception. I'm closest to this boarder. If you had attacked from the other side, it would only help me." They were still pressing forward when a pair of orange blades had appeared above their heads.

Vita took her Device to the side and called for it, and the same time it responded. "Gigantform!" She took another leap in the air using the power of the attackers on her to make a flip and using its momentum to strike at the twintailed girl. The girl was surprised by the attack and her split-second decision to make a shield wasn't enough. The shield shattered and she was sent flying, hitting her back against a tree.

Teana gasped for air when the hit took it all she had inside instantly out, before collapsing on the ground.

"Stop!" Vita called as soon as she realized that the girl was seriously hurt. "The mock battle ends here." She walked to the girl who was on all fours, desperately trying to breathe. "Sorry about that, Teana." She said, taping Graf Eisen on her shoulder. "I thought your shields could handle that impact."

"It's..." The said girl winced as her ribs sent the information to her brain. "...alright! I can manage that at least." She managed to say, with a hand covering her lower chest.

"Ooi. Shamal, are you there?" The little woman said, ignoring her student, as a few holografic displays appeared on her side.

"I'm here, Vita-chan. What's the matter?" The blonde said with a smile.

"I'm sending carrot-tops here to you. She's injured."

The gunslinger was about to burst in anger at the sudden mention of her unwanted nickname (courtesy of Sein), but she had to bit her lip before her little fit backfired and her own lungs betrayed her, forcing her ribs.

"Okay. I'll be prepared." The blonde said as the window disappeared.

"There you have it. Now go before I have to create more injuries for Shamal to treat."

Teana nodded and started to walk, feeling each step more difficult.

"Ah, man..." The red haired, sighed. "Subaru, Erio, Caro. We'll take a break. Subaru, can you help Teana get to Shamal's office?"

"Yes." The girl almost shouted, and dashed to the side of her longtime friend. "Here." Pulling Teana's right arm around her shoulder and neck. "Let me support your weight."

Erio and Caro looked over to her teacher and she, understanding the silent plea, waved them to go together with the Stars duo. Vita watched them and, after they were out of earshot, she grabbed tightly on her device and hammered the ground. "Damn it!!"

* * *

"What kind of stupid question is that?" The raven haired man was almost at the point of getting the other man in the room by the neck.

"Think carefully, Chrono." Carim said. "Vivio is a clone. DNA, blood, features. Everything is different from Nanoha-san. Even if she was who bore the girl, she isn't her real mother."

"A clone isn't legally bound to the womb that carried it." Verossa input. "Even if Vivio was born from Nanoha-san, for the effects of the law, Nanoha-san equals a lifepod in this case, do you understand what this means?"

Chrono was almost shouting in agony now. It was too much for anyone to take. "First she was a baby's mother, then she was Vivio's mother, and now she's a lifepod? Can't you people make up your minds?" He fumed.

Carim waited for the man to collect himself, since he realized that what he said was improper, then continued. "You see, Chrono, One of the things that make our combination a successful one, is that each of us have a different opinion in each case, which leads to dialogue, which leads to better understanding of the situation. If I said to you outright what my opinion on the subject is, your opinion would be biased, and we wouldn't get anywhere." She took the last sip on her tea, and set the cup aside. "That's why we present you with the facts, and the decision you make on your own. If it's the same as mine, then we can talk, if it's the same as Verossa's, we can talk the same way. That's the only way to bring it to an understanding."

"I... I'll think about it." It's not that he didn't understand what the woman was trying to tell him. It's just that at the moment, the emotions that were rolling around his head were messing up his judgement so he decided that it was better to stop right there for the day. "Just when I thought everything about Scaglietti was over, comes this..." He sighed and got up. "I'll contact you tomorrow." He said as he leaved the room.

When the door was closed, the green haired man looked at his stepsister. "Was it really okay to let both of them go out with so much in their minds?"

She looked at him, with a neutral face. "They need to decide what is more important to them, before we can get any further into this subject." She sighed. "Right now, I think you know what you need to do."

He looked at her for a few more moments before lowering his head and sighing. "You really are something else, you know?" He raised his head to look at her with a grin splattered in the face. "You are just like a chess player, always thinking ahead." His grin grew wider. "Yes, I know. Find more about the old ones. If they did something like this once, it's possible that they did more in the past."

She didn't answered and just smiled at him.

* * *

The silver haired unison device floated from her makeshift table to the door as soon as she heard the footsteps of her mistress. "Hayate..." She stopped midway through her greeting "-chan?" She noticed that the woman was not exactly well. "What happened?"

"Oh, hi Rein." The Commander said, as if just noticing her younger family member in that moment. "It was nothing, don't worry."

Reinforce didn't let that persuade her, as it was clear that she had been crying. And she was troubled by something. "Is it a new incident?" She asked, even thought she knew that a simple incident wouldn't make her mistress cry, even if it was something that could destroy the world. It would just spring her forward even more.

"It's nothing. Don't worry Rein." Hayate said as she sat on her chair.

"If it was nothing, then why were you crying?" Rein decided to be blunt. It was a faster method to get answers, even if it wasn't perfect.

"I just heard some news that I... I mean, I don't know what to think of them, really." She looked at her drawer then, hesitantly, opened. From there she took her album and started browse it, seemingly absent minded.

"Hayate-chan..." Rein said, almost moaning, while she watched the girl from a few paces away.

* * *

A/N: And this is what I have till now. I honestly didn't expected this story to be so well received by so many. Special mention to Alavon (who pressed me unwittingly to write more) and F91-Raiser(who corrected my bad English and gave me his opinions on this). Read and review. Please.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 3 - Friends**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

"Yo!" The blue haired girl sat upright on her bed, as her roommate entered the door. "How bad was it?"

The twintailed girl closed the door and walked to her nightstand. "Not as bad as the pain would suggest, according to Shamal-sensei." She took off her jacket, and undid the cufflinks of the shirt. "I just need to take it easy for a week, drink a good deal of milk, not do anything rash, and visit her everyday."

Subaru jumped from her top bunk and walked to her friend. "I know how you felt. Vice-Captain Vita has a mean arm, right?"

"Tell me about it..." Teana answered, while selecting a sweatpants and a shirt to use as pajamas. Subaru noticed the girl writhing about to catch the items that were on the bottom drawer. "Are you really okay?"

"Yes. I am! Don't worry!" The girl answered, voice upping a notch. "I took my shower alone, why wouldn't I be able to change my own clothes."

"Okay, sorry." Subaru said, as the gunslinger took off her shirt, showing the other girl the bandages that were covered until that moment. She undid her skirt and when the mechanical movement to unclasp her bra kicked in she winced as the pain reminded her that she couldn't do it. "Hey, calm down." Subaru walked over to her. "Here, let me." She released it for her friend. "Did you really took a shower alone?"

Teana turned to her friend, face bright red, as she used both arms to hold the unclasped bra in place. "O-O-Of course." She stammered, then turned her back once again, and whispered, more to herself than to the other. "Caro just helped me get dressed."

Subaru heard what she said, but decided not to probe, as teasing the girl now could enrage her and she would hurt herself. "Okay." Seeing the girl obviously troubled in how to put her pants on, she pushed it upwards till the fabric was at arms lenght from her friend's hands.

"I can do that, you know?" Teana fumed, slapping Subaru's hand. The blue eyes girl didn't even flinch from her spot till the other got hold of it.

"I know you can." She smiled. "I'm just meddling."

Teana put her baggy shirt, untied her ribbons, and then she sat on her bed. Subaru followed suit and jumped back to the top bunk. Shifting herself in bed, the orange haired girl lay down and tried to find a comfortable position, while murmuring. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The other answered.

* * *

"I'm back!" Fate called as soon as she entered the room. When no answer came to her she walked around the pillar and found both mother and daughter sleeping against each other. Nanoha was obviously trying to review reports, as the screens were still in front of her, but she had fallen asleep.

Carefully to not wake both of them she climbed the four steps to the bed and prepared it, then climbed back and craddled the little girl to it. After making sure she wasn't going to wake, she walked back to her friend. "Nanoha." She called softly, while gentling stirring the other. "You have to sleep in bed, you know?"

"Hmmm..." The brunette groggily woke and realized that she had fallen asleep in the couch. She felt her legs starting to tense the muscles to pull her up, but then decided that the couch was comfortable enough to continue there. She closed her eyes again.

"No, no, no." The blonde shook her friend again. "You're not going to sleep there, missy!"

Nanoha, eyes still closed, smiled fondly. "Please, let me?"

"No way." Fate too laughed softly. "You're not gonna sleep there today." And started to shake the girl a little harder.

"Okay, okay. You win." Nanoha said, despite not moving at all from her spot.

"Then go already." The blonde standed, hands on her waist.

Nanoha lifted both arms to the other, eyes still closed. "Carry me?"

"What?"

"Pleaassse!" The brunette opened her eyes and grinned at the blonde.

"Alright, alright." Fate gave up, and caught the girl, in a bridal position. "You owe me one.

Nanoha snuggled against her friend during the short walk before feeling the coldness of the sheets. She let go of the other neck and adjusted herself in bed, seemingly asleep again even before Fate covered her with the sheet.

The blonde walked to her nightstand and took a nightgown from it.

"You know, Fate-chan?" Nanoha started, with her eyes still closed, which made the blonde wonder if the other was sleeptalking. "You'll have to be careful when you marry." The brunette yawned. "Otherwise will be you carrying the groom instead of the other way around."

"Why's that?"

"You're too good at it." Nanoha laughed softly.

"Why you." Fate said, mocking angry. "Go to sleep already."

* * *

"There you are." The blonde said, finally finding her friend after searching half the base.

"Oh. Hi, Shamal. What's up?" Vita asked, sitting on the edge of the training center, barefeet playing in the water.

"You didn't show up at the mess hall, neither did Hayate-chan. We we're worried since neither of you answered our calls."

"Ah, sorry. I guess I'm having a little too much on my mind at the moment." The little girl mumbled.

"Let me guess, Teana right?" Shamal said, sitting beside the girl

"No... Yes..." She sighed. "I don't know... maybe." She leaned back, putting her hands behind her head. "Earlier today, I said to Nanoha that Teana needed more work on her shields and protections, but during the mock battle, I... I forgot that..."

"And put too much strength in the attack." The blonde finished.

"Yeah." Vita said, closing her eyes.

"It was an accident. It's normal. Accidents happen, you know that right?"

"Yeah, but it still doesn't help that it could be avoided, if I had just paid attention more in teaching and less in beating them."

"Vita-chan..."

"I promissed that I would protect everyone... That I would make sure that all of us stayed safe at all times... It doesn't help when I'm the one putting them in unnecessary danger, you know?" She took her feet out of the water and put on her boots. "Let's go get something to eat." And started walking away from the blonde.

"What do you think?" A solemn voice was heard behind the blonde, few seconds after the little one had disappeared from view.

"She's troubled. That's a given, but she's always like this. No need to worry too much. I'm sure that by tomorrow she'll be as good as new."

"Yes." Signum offered her hand and helped the other get to her feet. "I'll take care of her."

* * *

The Commander didn't notice the time passing after she got to the base. The room was dark, except for the lightposts' light that came through the windows. Reinforce had tried countless times to make the older girl say something to no avail. Hayate was still browsing the photo album, even though the light wasn't enough for her to see almost anything in the images. Her mind wasn't there.

She was reminiscing about the past, namely the time where she had accompanied Nanoha from Lopes to MidChilda. Until yesterday she had wondered why not even her and Fate had managed to make Nanoha break her rules of not wanting to see anyone during those months. It managed to get even the usually calm and collected Signum to snap at Nanoha's videoletter image one time. Now she knew that wasn't really Nanoha in the image and some things started to fall into place. The way she acted during those unbearable months was just the tip of the iceberg. The facts that were deemed as normal at the time, now she could see the hidden motives.

How they had to convince Fate to go in the training mission at that time, because they thought that Nanoha wouldn't like to know that she was the reason why her friend had lost such a great opportunity. Hayate sighed, thinking how unwittingly she had helped them with that.

How she and the rest of her team accompanied the Three Admirals in that long trip. The way they acted towards them. Mizetto seemed to truly had taken a liking to her and Vita, but now, with the information that she has, the actions of the older woman seemed to be perverted in her memories, as if every action and every word from them screamed 'lie'.

She flipped another page. The photo in that gloomy light shows the face of the woman she looked up to. She streched her fingers then curled them in a fist, trying to regain some composure by releasing the anger with the gesture. She breathed slowly, taking her time intaking and exalling. The image of the woman smiling tenderly at the camera, while embracing her and Vita. Her smile seemed vile and dark. Hayate started to feel like a puppet being controlled by those people.

She forcefully turned the page again. The photo now was almost invisible in the darkness and she makes out only some blurs of colours in it. Purple, yellow, a darker yellow, brown and brown. She realizes that it's a photo of a sleepover at Suzuka's house when they where in high school. Hayate remembers that during that night, when they were in the bath, everyone got curious around the scars Nanoha had on her body. Two on the back, one large, high, in the middle of the ribcage, one smaller at the right side, about a hand or two from her waist. Other two smaller scars were on her front. One a little below her breasts, the other on her waist. At the time, Hayate was the one that explained that those were from where the blades entered and got out from her body. Now she knew. Now she knew that only three of those scars were from the stabs. One of them was from the section they made in her to give birth to her baby.

Nanoha's baby. Vivio. Hayate tries to imagine the sadness of a mother who could never hold her child, never heard his cry, nor felt his warmth. The thought made her close her eyes. Tears were starting to swell up again, but she decided to hold them in. She was amazed that she still had tears in her, despite the way she being crying the whole day.

She flip another page, it's another photo of the same sleepover and Hayate starts to remember again. That night Nanoha was moaning in her sleep and everyone was awakened by it. By morning they were teasing the girl, saying things like how nice of a dream she must had, ensuing and trying to figure out who was the stud that made the girl sweat and moan through the night. Was it Yuuno, or that hot teacher in-training that ministered classes for them through that week? Giggles and laughs at her expense, but she never revealed who it was. She couldn't, actually. It was only years later that Fate told her that Nanoha had nightmares. Repeatedly. They weren't always the same, but they always ended the same, with the girl feeling empty. The description of her dreams now fit like a glove in Hayate's mind, and she feels a little bad for teasing the girl back then.

Another photo, taken in the Arthra. Even in the darkness she could remember that one. It was of Chrono's and Amy's wedding. Until today they didn't reveal the reason why they decided to hold the ceremony in the ship and even thought it was mostly hidden by the wedding dress, you could already see the woman's womb was a little swollen. No one ever said anything against their marriage since they obviously cared about each other, and the babies that were on their way were proof of that. Hayate smiled at the memory of the two of them in the nursery with a blushing Chrono holding the twins, while Nanoha and Fate both teased him and the babies. She remembers the smile of her friend and savior while looking at the babies. The image was burned in her mind.

Hayate looked at the reports on her table. Mixed with the reports of the normal day of Riot 6 were the papers she brought with her from the Saint Church. She picked up a description of the video files, but before she tried to start to read, she realized that the lights in the room wouldn't allow her to do that. She lifted her head and looked to her couch where Rein was sleeping. Apparently the little one gave up on trying to persuade her and fell asleep while waiting. Hayate lifted her hand to form a display and turn on the lights but she's beaten to it when someone else entered the room and the light from the corridor flooded the office.

"Hayate, are you there?" The voice came along with the brightness.

"Ye.." Hayate started but stopped midway to clear her throat. "Yes, Vita-chan. What is it?"

"Why are you here in the dark?" Was the obvious question the Belkan knight had to ask her mistress while turning the lights on.

The brightness hurt Hayate's eyes for a moment before she could focus her eyes again. "I lost track of time, I guess." Vita took a few steps in her direction when Hayate raised her head. Immediatly she spun her chair and looked out the window.

"Were you... crying?" The red haired walked to the other. When she was two steps from her she raised her hand, but Hayate quickly spun her chair again and pulled the little one in a tight hug, burying her face on the other's shoulder. "Wha..." Vita was taken by surprise, and stumbled forward, but managed to stay on her feet. She embraced the woman and patted her head. "What happened?"

"Please, Vita. Just let me stay like this a little while longer, okay? Don't ask me anything. Just..." She trailled off.

"Shush. Okay, okay. Don't worry. I'm here for you. We all are." She said as she noticed Signum, Shamal and Zafira on the door. They were about to enter the door, but decided to stay there. "We're family." As she said this, she felt Hayate stiffen on her shoulder, then a small sob. "Oi? What..." She started but bit her lip.

The others hurriedly walked over to their mistress. Shamal kneeled beside her and soothingly stroked her back, Zafira put his head on her lap and Signum watched the scene for a few seconds before leaving the room. Hayate was clearly hiding in Vita's shoulder by this point. She didn't want the others to look at her face.

The blonde turned to the red haired asked what was happening through body language, but Vita only shrugged. She was as clueless as the Lady of the Lakes. "Hayate-chan." The girl stopped sobbing for a moment to show that she got her attention. "Did you eat anything?"

The question threw Hayate off, and she instinctively looked up to her. Shamal could now see her eyes. Red. She opened her mouth to ask again what happened but changed her sentence before it reached her tongue. "Let's go to the dorm. I'll fix something up for you since the cafeteria is already closed."

Signum came back in that moment, with a bottle of water and a few paper cups. The commander looked around, to each face on the room, everyone with concerned faces, then accepted the cup that the pink haired offered. She patted the wolf guardian's head, and while drinking, ruffled his fur. "Thanks, Signum." She got up. "Let's get some sleep." She walked a few steps, feeling the soreness on her limbs, to the couch, and gently picked up the little sleeping girl before putting her on her makeshift 'room' inside the her bag. "But before that..." She summoned a holoscreen and typed a few commands. "There. Now we can go."

In a room, in Riot's 6 dormitory, a triangular device blinked.

* * *

"You didn't go to Shamal yesterday." The blonde stated to her roommate. "You promised."

"Nyahahaha." Nanoha, still walking forward, turned her head to her friend some steps behind. "I'm okay. You don't need to worry. It was just a normal bad dream, it wasn't like those ones."

Fate picked up her pace and lined up with her friend. "Even so, you're working yourself too much lately. Don't think I didn't realized that you were looking at reports yesterday when I got back."

"You're really a worrywart, you know that?" The brunette put a hand on Fate's shoulder. "I'll go today, okay? Happy?"

"No. I'll only be after I see you in her office." Fate looked at her friend, eyes pleading and commanding at the same time.

"I'll be there after lunch then. You can come with me." She smiled.

"No." She grabbed the girl by the wrist. "You're going right now." And proceeded to pretty much drag her to the doctor's office.

A few minutes later, and they were in front of it, with Shamal answering the door.

"Good morning, Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan. What can I do to help you today? If it's about Teana, then..."

"No, it's about this blockhead here." Fate cut the other blonde.

"Wait, what about Teana?" Nanoha asked. Anything to cut that meeting short was valid.

"She got injured yesterday during training. Nothing too serious, she'll just need to take a break from physical training."

"Where's she now? Is she on her room?" Nanoha said, trying to backtrack a step, but having Fate forcefully pulling her back.

"Oh, no. No, no, no." She pulled the girl and wraped a arm around her waist. "You're not getting out of this so easily."

Shamal understood. "Don't worry, she's okay, I tell you. Now what can I do to help you?" She got the other side of the brunette, lacing an arm around her shoulders.

"There's nothing. Fate-chan is being a worrywart, that's all."

"Oh, really." The blonde glanced at Fate. "Then you don't mind that we have a little consult just to take her worries away, do you?"

"But Shamal..." Nanoha whined.

"No buts." She smiled, entering the office. "You have been postponing your exams for way too long."

Fate stood there, waiting for them to disappear inside the office, before turning and going her way. "Bardiche."

"Yes, sir." The metallic voice of her device answered.

"Show me what's on the agenda for the day." She said still walking in the direction of her office.

A display appeared on her side. "All your appointments for the morning were cancelled, sir."

Fate blinked then stopped and examined the screen. "When did this happen?" She browsed through it and only seeing a meeting with Hayate was scheduled.

"Yesterday, at twenty-three-thirty-four, sir." The device blinked.

"Okay, thank you."

"No problem, sir."

Fate changed destinations, and walked in the general direction of Hayate's office. "What could have happened?" She voiced her toughts. If it was something urgent, Hayate would have emitted an emergency alert, so she brushed the idea away. A few minutes later and she was knocking on her commander's door.

"Come in." Fate stepped inside and saluted, waiting to see if there was someone else there. "Don't worry, it's just us here." She turned to her Aide. "Rein, these are yesterday's reports and today's orders for everyone. Can you handle them for me?"

"But..." The little silverhaired looked at her mistress a moment, not really understanding the order. These things could be issued through other means, not needing to be personally delivered. She looked at Fate and then remembered the way Hayate was acting the day before. "Yes, Hayate-chan..." She took the information and stored it away on screens that popped in front of her.

"Please, lock the door when you leave." Hayate ordered the little device, that obeyed as soon as she was out of the door.

That was weird, the blonde tought to herself. Fate was starting to feel restless, and it didn't help when Hayate decided to close the blinds behind her desk as well. "Umm... What was so urgent?" She managed to ask before anything.

Hayate took a deep breath, and started to handle some papers on her desk as if they were made of nitroglicerin. She was hoping that a sudden burst of inspiration would hit her and she could take care of whole situation better, but nothing came to her, so she simply handed Fate a package. When the blonde made mention to open it, the commander cleared her throat. "Fate-chan, before you look at those, can you answer something for me?"

Fate looked up from the envelope. "Yes?"

"What do you think of Nanoha-chan?" Realizing that her question could be taken the wrong way, she corrected herself. "Better yet, what do you think of her relationship with Vivio?"

Fate frowned, puzzled. "I don't... I don't think I understand... They're like mother and daughter. Nanoha is Nanoha. Strict, sometimes harsh, but caring and kind to her. Vivio is very much like any six year old, curious, going from laughing to crying instantly..."

Hayate grimmaced. "You know what?" She started, which made Fate look even more clueless. "I can't do this. I'm not cut to act this way." She slumped on her chair. "Take a look at those papers, and you'll understand."

Fate was confused, but took the papers on hand started to browse through it. Hayate used this moment to get up from her seat and walked to the side of her friend. The blonde's expression began to change, ever so slowly, from confused to disbelief. After she passed through it all, she looked up to Hayate, and browsed them one more time, reading every word as if something wasn't right. It had to be some kind of mistake. It couldn't be possible. Then all of sudden she stopped reading. Calmly, she put the papers on the table again, fiddling with it, neatly arranging them in a pile. Hayate put a hand on her shoulder, but it seemed that was the light for the fuse of the redeyed girl because she immediately tried to shot up and the commander had trouble in keeping the girl in the seat. "And what you think you're going to do?" She asked, smiling at her.

"I... I... I... I'm... going... I'm going... I'll..." Fate tried again and again but everything was blank. The only thing that was on her mind was her friend and her surrogate daughter.

"You're not going anywhere." Hayate said, commanding. "Not without calming down first, at least."

"But I... This..." Fate couldn't calm down enough to make a complete sentence. Hayate saw all the emotions coursing through her expression, ranged from joy to rage, and it seemed that it would take some time until it eased on the redeyed's mind.

All of a sudden the blonde simply stopped. Head up, looking Hayate in the face, completely expressionless. The brown haired caressed her hair, trying to soothe the girl, but she didn't respond. She was like a empty doll looking up at her friend. All the emotions that were passing through her eyes a moment before weren't there. If she didn't blinked from time to time, the other could be fooled that what was in her arms wasn't her friend but some kind of life sized doll.

Then a solitary tear formed itself and carressed her face, while rolling down. Then another. Then her eyes regained the emotion that it had lost moments before. Her expression changed too, but it wasn't what Hayate was expecting. "Um... Are you okay... Fate-chan?" The girl was... happy?

"Okay?" She sobbed. "How can I not be okay?" Another sob and a smile came to her face. "She's her daughter. Vivio is Nanoha daughter!" She pushed the other into a tight hug, making the brown haired wince. "Oh god, she's her real daughter. Oh, god! Oh, god! I have to tell her. We have to tell her. Did you already tell her? No you didn't, if you had she wouldn't be acting normal. This is incredible." She released her friend. "Where is she now?" She got up from her seat. "In the training center, right? She should be there, of course." She started to pace around in the room. "We need to go get Vivio." She stopped in her tracks. "Oh, god. Now we know when Vivio's real birthday is. We can start planning her birthday party."

Hayate was stupefied with how the other was taking all this. She herself didn't understand. "Wait, Fate-chan." The girl continued ranting, not listening. "Fate-chan." She tried again. "Enforcer Fate Testarossa Harlaown." Hayate said at last, finally getting her attention. "Calm down."

"But, it's a such a wonderful moment." She put a hand on her chest and seated again. That was definitely not the reaction Hayate was expecting. She was way too hyper.

"Listen. Did you think about the consequences? What'll happen when she hears about everything?"

"Of course she'll be overjoyed." Fate was trying hard not to jump around in the room.

"But the Admirals... And Scaglietti..." The commander thought about every type of reaction possible that her friend would have over the news, but that wasn't one of them.

"Of course I'm angry at them. I want to go right now and rip Scaglietti a new one. And Mizetto too." Fate beamed, which contradict with she was saying. "But that doesn't change the fact that Vivio is Nanoha's daughter! She's really her daughter!"

"What I'm worried is what Nanoha will do to them." Hayate stated flatly.

"She'll... She'll..." Fate trailed off. The adrenaline rush finally settling. What will _she_ do with them? She looked at the brown haired, hoping for an answer.

"I don't know either." Hayate answered, as if reading the other's mind. "That's why I decided to talk to you about this."

* * *

Chrono was silent. His wife had come several times to check on him since the day before, but nothing seemed to faze the man. The day before he had gotten home, sat on his desk at his home office, and frowned. Amy didn't know what to make of it. He was a silent person as per norm, but the way the Admiral was acting at the moment was beyond what she ever seen him do before, and that was from a person who knew him for more than half of his life. She knew that something wasn't right, and that he didn't want to talk to her about it didn't help either. He had passed all night sitting in the same position, which kind of scared her. She had to go check on him several times to make sure he was even blinking.

She had just gotten back from grocery shopping that morning and half-expected that her husband would be still rolled up in his chair, and sure enough he was still there. What she didn't expect was that he was browsing through some holoscreens. She watched him a few moments, before entering the office, hoping that he would at least talk to her.

"Anything interesting?" Amy knew she needed to act normal around him, else he would either chalk up and chase her out, or ignore her completely again.

He changed his focus from the screen to his wife, feeling the pain in his eyes from changing focus after so long. "Some things."

The woman took that reply as an okay for her to get close. "And what would that be?" She sat on his lap, lacing an arm around his neck, while shifting position enough to see what was on the screens. She saw reports on one, a search website on other and photos of the recent JS incident on a third, where Vivio and Nanoha were battling. "Did something happened? Wasn't this case already closed?"

"Yes." He grimmaced. "But apparently, things never are what they seem." He said while closing the windows. "I need to go to central today."

Amy got up from his lap, before kissing his temple. "Okay, but first you need to eat something. You haven't eaten anything since you got home and I really don't want my hubby fainting because he was hungry. Lindy would eat me alive."

"I doubt that." Chrono caressed her back, trying his best to smile, but for any other person aside from his wife, it would look like he was about to yell at her. "Don't worry, I'm not that weak but I'll eat something."

About an hour later, he was already in the corridors of the Claudia. While receiving salutes from his subbordinates he walked to the bridge. After sitting on his chair, he asked about the conditions of the ship and mission schedules. When he got the information, he decided that he still had time before the ship had to actually take part in any of the missions that were ongoing. The enforcers stationed on the Claudia were all in missions on MidChilda or other planets close by.

He got up from his seat. "I'll be in my office if anything comes up." Upon hearing answers and salutes he walked to the door of the bridge. A few minutes later and he was sitting on one of the guests couches in his ship office, still processing the information of the day before.

Vivio. Nanoha. Scaglietti. Mizetto. Ralgo. Fils. Gaiz. Del Deppio.

He summoned a screen and after a few keys he found a handful of information on them. Vivio and Nanoha were still in Riot's 6 base, Scaglietti was still pretty much locked up in his cell on a dimensional penal colony, and the three admirals were the easiest to know whereabouts. They were always in the news, be it about some new commentary, covenant, reunion, or just a gossip show. And Gaiz and Del Deppio continued in the same place too, six feet under.

They didn't even have the decency of taking off the charges on the lieutenant, tranforming him in some sort of criminal after his death.

He sighed and got up, summoning another screen. "Set a teleportation for the Infinity Library."

"Yes, sir." One operator answered.

"I'll be gone for a few hours, but communication channel will remain open."

"Understood, sir."

He started walking to the telepods area while dialing his friend. After a few seconds, a familiar face popped on the screen. "Hey there, Ferret."

"Good to see you too, Chrono." The archeologist smiled, but two or three veins popped in the back of his head. "What can I do for you today?"

"I'm going there right now. Can you look into some information for me?"

"Sure. About what?"

"Clones. Anything and everything you can think of it. I'll be there in about thirty minutes. Don't make me wait."

The librarian sighed. "You really are a slavedriver, you know that?"

Chrono shrugged and closed the com window, then stepped on the cylinder of faint green light that would transport him to his destination.

* * *

A/N: Again, big shout to F91/Raiser for being kind enough and put up with my clumsiness with the English language. Thanks again for the reviews and for the people at the Nanoha FFT at the Animesuki forums, who gave me much of the insight for this.

This is my longest chapter to date. I tried to add a little for each subplot in this chapter, just to keep things going.

(Note to self. Don't write more than 5k words a chapter when you're still just a rookie.)


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 4 - Answers**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

"So anything you want to tell me?" The blonde asked, after making the routine examinations on her patient.

"I already said it's nothing. I was just tired and had a bad dream. Fate-chan was overreacting, that's all." The brunette answered while adjusting her shirt.

"Was it really only a bad dream?"

"Yes. I haven't had those nightmares in months." Nanoha sighed, working on her buttons.

"Really?" Shamal drummed her pen on the table for a few seconds. "Well, I know you probably won't do it, but..." She started to scribble something. "Here is the address of a friend of mine. She's a specialist in sleep medicine and I can make the appointment if you want. She can help you discover from where your nightmares and bad dreams come from, be it bad sleeping habits or something else." She smiled. Bending Nanoha to do something against her will needed tact. In her case, reverse psychology worked most of the time.

The brunette grunted as she took the piece of paper. "I know what you're doing." She shot a half displeased look at the doctor, then skimmed through the paper and shoved in her skirt pocket.

"I'm not doing anything." Someone could almost see the halo on Shamal's head in that moment, and a pointy tail behind her. "If you need something else, just call me okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Nanoha took a few steps to the door, then stopped. "Oh yeah, what happened to Teana?"

"She got mildly injured in yesterday's training, that's all. Vita-chan can tell you the details." Shamal smiled and waved as the other got out the door. She leaned back on her chair and started reading a few records on her recent patients when a window with a waiting call flashed at her table.

"Shamal, did Nanoha-chan passed by there?" Her mistress asked as soon as the call connected.

"Yes, but she's already gone. She should be in the training grounds by now, I think."

"I see." The other sighed. "Okay, thanks."

The doctor blinked, curious. "Hayate-chan, there's something that you're not telling me, isn't there?"

The commander looked up, eyes widening. "Shamal..." Then she softened, slumping her shoulders. "Yes, there is." Hayate decided it wasn't worth the effort to hide. "But don't ask me about it right now. I'm still processing some new informations that I received."

The blonde tilted her head, seemingly wanting to ask something but decided not to. "Okay, but you know that we'll be worried about it until you tell us what is it, right?"

"Yeah, I know, don't worry. I think that the more I wait to tell her the truth, the more she'll feel that we betrayed her." Hayate mumbled, pressing her eyelids with her fingers. "Anyway, thanks for now, Shamal." At that she cut the call.

Shamal tried in vain to piece together the last sentence. "...Betrayed her?" She asked to her empty table.

* * *

"I see." Nanoha put a hand on her chin, seemingly thinking.

"It was my fault." The red haired lowered her head. "I was in charge and I did this."

Nanoha looked up to the sky a little, then at her forwards stretching. "Subaru, Erio, Caro." Getting their attention. "It looks it's going to rain today, so we'll do just some light exercise, okay?" Upon hearing understanding noises she waved her hand as the control panel of the training field appeared around her.

"Oi, Nanoha, what about..." Vita was cut of when Nanoha extended put her index finger in front of the knight.

"All set." The training ground was set to city. "You have thirty minutes to eliminate and or neutralize all type III gadgets on the field. Ready?" The three of them nodded. "Mission start!" She said as she pressed a translucent button and a counter appeared before her. "Now, Vita-chan..." The little knight gulped. "You know where Teana is?"

"She should be in her quarters." The knight squirmed. "I think- I mean, Shamal ordered her to not do anything strenuous before she heals."

The brunette patted her index finger on her chin for a few moments, looked up, then spoke again. "Teana's a really good center, don't you think? She has the material and part of the mindset of a good field commander."

"Well..." Vita seemed to have calmed a little. It didn't seem like Nanoha was too mad at her. "Aside from her temper around the others, especially Subaru... Yeah. I can agree with you."

"Bu-ut..." Nanoha put a hand on the smaller one shoulder, not moving her eyes from the monitor, where Caro had just finished casting her alchemic chain spell. "She still didn't had any specific command training, has she?"

Vita looked at the hand on her shoulder, then at the face of the Ace, but couldn't make out what she was thinking. "None that I can remember." She answered.

Nanoha started to rub the smaller one's shoulder. "Erio, Subaru, you two can't attack at the same time while pincering the target. You'll risk hitting each other." Both of them nodded on the monitors. The brunette continued to brush the knight's shoulder, gripping a little too tightly. "I think it's time to teach Teana some of the basics in field command, don't you think, Vita-chan?" She said turning to her and smiling.

"Yeah..." Vita answered before looking at the taller one. "Wait, don't tell me..."

"What do you think of being assigned during this week to specifically teach Teana the theoric basics of field command." She waved her hands, as another monitor appeared. "We can't have her wandering about doing nothing while all the others are training so hard, can we?" She leaned down. "And we don't want her to overwork herself while she should be resting, right?"

Vita groaned. "Alright, alright, already. I get it, I get it. Sheesh."

* * *

He was amazed and this didn't help when he wanted to make fun of his friend. The amount of books, papers and disks piled up in front of him was nothing short of incredible. He took a step to the side, to see the other's face. "I take that you added really anything you could think of in here."

"Anything and everything." The blonde added. "Clones, Project F, twins, data of known Logias that can create similar effects... They are all piled by category and organized by date."

Chrono frowned. Okay, maybe he did ask for this, and now that the other had really gone out of his way to collect that amount of data, he couldn't just ask for a short version of it, so he decided to try and filter a little of the information. He took one of the books and tried to browse through it. He sighed and put the book back on it's place, before taking another one.

Yuuno signaled a chair for the other man. "Here, take a seat."

"Thanks." Chrono grumbled.

"Why the sudden interest in clones?" Yuuno knew that Fate was a clone, not that it mattered very much for any of them through all these years. "Is it about Vivio or Fate? Perhaps Erio?"

Chrono frown deepened, as he read the title of another book. "Something along those lines. I just realized that I didn't know much about them till yesterday."

The librarian perked up. "Well, what are you looking for then?" Yuuno knew that he could just leave his friend alone with the information that he asked for, but something in his heart didn't let him. Maybe it was because he noticed that the other was amazed with the amount of information that he gathered before him in such a small amount of time. What Chrono didn't know was that there was a section in the library specifically for clones, and all Yuuno did was move the information from the stand to the table. Maybe that's why the librarian was feeling a little guilty.

"Well... For starters, do you know exactly how a clone is conceived?" Chrono asked.

"Exactly no. There's many ways and techniques. One of them would be by somatic cell transfer, where the nucleus of an unfertilised egg is removed and replaced by a somatic cell or a whole diploid body cell. Then you use a chemical or electrical stimulation to create an embryo. As you can see, this process doesn't require the two gametes..."

Chrono waved his hand. "Okay, okay, I get it. You don't need to go into technical details." He popped his neck moving from side to side. "This embryo... How do you create a clone from it."

Yuuno though for a moment. "Well, to be honest, if the embryo divides itself, it can already be considered a clone."

"Okay, so how do they grow?" Chrono inquired.

"Well... Let's see. There's several ways to grow a clone from a embryonic stage, but the most common would be a gestational mother or a lifepod. Given that cloning isn't an exact science, and it isn't very well viewed in most regions, all information regarding it is mostly from rogue projects. Very few people have TSAB's authorization to deal with it, and it's findings are not released to the public. I think only a few higher-ups on the TSAB know more about it." A image came to his mind. "Of course... Well, forget it. I don't think you would want to ask him about it."

"Who?" Chrono asked, and almost at the same time understood. "No, you're right. Forget it."

"Hey, I don't like him either, you know? But I have to admit that he his the most knowledgeable person in that area that I know of."

"Even then, no."

Yuuno sighed. "Okay, then."

"You said that a it uses a... gestational mother, was it? To bring the clone, right?" Upon Yuuno's nodding he continued. "Can she be considered the real mother?"

Yuuno sat back on his chair. "Well... It's rather hard to tell. In the genetic sense, no. She isn't the clone's mother because she doesn't carry any of the genes from its gestational mother. The mother played no part in conceiving it so she can't be considered her mother in this sense."

Chrono grimmaced. "I see..."

"For the effects of the law, too. She wouldn't be considered the child's mother, only a guardian or at most an adoptive one, in case she raised the kid. Of course, in this case the child welfare would be taken into account as with any other adoption, like in Nanoha's case with Vivio." Chrono's eye twitched at the mention of the Ace's name, and Yuuno noticed. "Is something the matter with them?"

"I won't lie to you." He said sighing deeply. "But, for now, don't ask anything more." Chrono knew that the librarian would piece things together, but right now he couldn't bother to explain, plus he didn't have the reports on him to prove the point, and he doubted that even Yuuno could guess what was really happening. "Continue."

The bespectacled man tried again to read his friend for a few moments before giving up. "Well, a gestational mother is still a mother in her own way, even if she wasn't the one that conceived the child, she was the one gave who birth. Of course, and this is controversial as much things in these cases, the kid could act as if both the genetic mother and gestational mother were real mothers or pick one of them."

"So it would be up for the cloned kid to choose his mother?" Chrono rose an eyebrow.

"As I said, is controversial." He took a deep breath. "But the real problem in this case would be if the kid choose the genetic over the gestational mother."

"Why's that?" The raven haired shifted in his seat, leaning closer.

"Well, she would be like an Angel Mother." Seeing question marks all over the other's face, Yuuno explained. "An Angel Mother is a mother who had a child with SADS, sudden antenatal death syndrome. This is more commonly known as stillbirth." When the other nodded, he continued. "Imagine what'll happen with the psyche of a mother who carried her baby during forty weeks, give or take a few, and discovers that she will not be able to hold her child, nor hear his cry, nor breastfeed him. She'll have nothing aside the empty feeling of loss." He sighed. "A loss that she couldn't help. I think that a gestational mother would have a similar feeling of emptiness. That's one of the reasons that the best would be for the genetic mother to be the same as the gestational mother. In this case, there's nothing to worry about. But, since insemination In Vitro was researched and perfected mainly thinking about those women who couldn't have children of their own, things like this happen a lot with surrogate mothers."

"A gestational mother would feel the baby is like a part of her, even if she isn't the one who conceived it."

"More or less. I'm no expert in this area, so I can't really tell aside from what I read."

"I see." Chrono leaned back against the chair, looking again to the titles of the books on the table, not that he was interested anymore. His friend was a much more reliable source of information than any website search engine. "Thanks for the info. I think that's enough for now." He got up from his seat.

"Aren't you at least going to take some of the books with you?" The librarian got up from his seat.

"As I said, for now what you told me is enough." He took another step to the door. "But I would study more closely this subject if I were you. I have a feeling that you'll want that knowlodge." At this he turned and got out of the library, leaving an irritated Yuuno behind. Now he was starting to understand what Verossa had meant.

* * *

Her blonde hair waved from side to side as she walked briskly through the alleys and corridors of that detention facility. She could hear some of the prisioners holler and whistle at her, but that didn't matter. The smell of urine and sweat didn't bother her either. What bothered her the most was the fact that she was going to encounter someone she thought she would never see again after his trial. She never wanted to see him again in person.

She stopped at one of the security doors, waiting for one of the prison guards to open it. She adjusted the tie on her uniform, and double checked to see if there was anything else with her aside from her device. The door opened and she started walking again, thanking the men as she passed through the gate. Her forced smile still sent flutters back in her direction, but inside she was raging with anger. A few more steps and she was in front of the interrogation room. She took a long intake, trying to steady herself and try to put her emotions in order before entering it.

The inside of the room was a cubicle, like many other interrogation rooms she's been before. White walls being iluminated from seemingly nowhere, as if the walls glowed by themselves. On the wall across from the door, a mirror took over good part of the upper half of it, and in it's reflection she saw the face of the purple haired man, grinning as she closes the door.

"Hello, Enforcer Fate Testarossa. What did I do to deserve the pleasure of such a visit?" He said, smiling at her through the reflextion. His hands were binded to the chair he was sitting, and the chair fixed on the floor.

"Don't give me that, Scaglietti." Fate said, while walking to the other side of the table. "You know where you are right now."

"Oh, I know perfectly well." He started to rant. "Dimensional Prison number 42, the most advanced and secure dimensional prison in all TSAB's monitored planets. Codename, Arapuca. Once you get in, you can't get out. Or so they say."

"What I meant is where you are right now." Fate said, red eyes squaring every inch of the man's face, before taking another deep breath. "I have a few questions for you."

"Oh... I get the honor of being questioned by one of my children?" He chuckled. "I couldn't by happier in my entire life."

"I'm not one of your children." Fate repressed the urge to smack his head against the table.

"You'll have to humour me, Enforcer Fate Testarossa." Scaglietti tilted his head, then straightened it. "We don't get much fun around here, if you know what I mean."

Fate decided to let the matter go, then called. "Bardiche." Several windows appeared around in the table. "Seven years ago, you were the one that sent those drones to attack Vita's unit. Until now, we thought that it was a simple test run for your creations..."

"And what makes you think that it wasn't?" Deep yellow eyes tried to pierce through her.

"...But it wasn't, right?" She ignored the question. "At least one of the drones had genetic material in them. An embryo to be more exact."

"Oh... Really?" He smirked, waving his head to the side, to take off a lock of purple hair that fallen.

"And since it was so long ago," Fate cursed mentally because of what she was about to say. "We can't examine them to be certain of this."

"And you thought that I would answer your questions because...?" He said, almost singsonging.

She grimmaced. "Because you're the one who created them, and you're the one who started the Project F."

"Just for that?" He looked at her, mocking a shocked expression. "You have to be fair here, my child. I'm already locked up. I don't have anything more to loose, do I?" He cackled.

Fate slammed her hands on the table, getting another mocked shock from the man. "Sorry for even thinking that you could have a conscience." At this she shot up and started walking to the door.

"You know, Enforcer Fate Testarossa," He started, as if the name was made of sugar. "I was starting to wonder when someone would come to me and ask the right question."

Fate stopped and turned to the man, looking directly at him, while he looked at her through the mirror. "And what that would be?"

"It wouldn't be interesting if I told what the question is, now would it?" He laughed.

Fate stomped another step in the direction of the door and opened it.

"Oh, another thing, Enforcer Fate Testarossa." Fate stopped, still with her back in his direction, waiting for him to continue. "Has it been already more than two thousand hours since I was locked up? They don't let me use a watch here, so I don't know."

"You don't need one. You'll be locked up here till you die of old age."

He started to cackle again.

She slammed the door behind her, but not before hearing him cackle some more. She couldn't bear anymore being around that man so she continued to walk away from that room as if her life depended on it. Her eyes twitched as every word he said started playing again in her mind. She didn't want to admit, but he was right. He had nothing more to loose, and she had nothing on him to force some answers. She hated herself for a moment, before finally stepping out of the corridor and the sight of the desolate plains came to her. The fresh air burned her nostrils, as she took another deep breath. She turned and walked, coasting the wall to the exit, each step feeling better than the one before as the thought of getting out of that place filled her with more energy.

After a few more minutes, she was sitting inside the ship that took her there, after a fast teleport from the penal colony. The images of her last battle with Scaglietti came to her mind as she tried to think of something to use against him. An inkling feeling that something wasn't right.

_"...you can't stop my dream from coming true..."_

_"So much for that."_ She tought. _"Only if your dream was to be locked up for life."_

_"...Precia Testarossa was a incredible mage that managed to complete the Project F. Even if she thought that you were a mistake..."_

_"I already got over this."_ Precia was a kind mother that just broke after loosing her precious child. Fate had already seen that happen countless time in her time with the TSAB, so she had already settled herself with her past, and loved her mother despite everything.

_"...Let me tell you what the Project F can do when used right. Each and every one of the cyborgs carry a embryo of me. If I die here, you'll need to get every single one of them, otherwise, in a month I'll be back with all my memories intact..."_

They already had removed all the embryos from every cyborg, and the ones that wished to repent explained the remaining procedures to destroy what was left of it in his hideout.

Still, something wasn't right. Scaglietti was locked up. Vivio was, one way or another, Nanoha's daughter. She still wasn't certain what the brunette would do once she heard about the story. The fear was that Nanoha would go on a rampage after the Admirals and Scaglietti, but she had a gut feeling that Nanoha wouldn't do such a thing. Not the Nanoha she knew. Not the kind and sweet girl that fought along side her during the Book of Darkness Incident. The girl who would always go out of her way just to make sure every single one of her students was doing well in their new assignments. She knew that the Ace of the Sky would go to hell and back just to make sure any of her friends was okay, but... How would she react when something of that magnitude was done against herself. Fate still didn't had an answer for that question.

She thought back on the time they were fighting each other for the Jewel Seeds. Ever since their first encounter Nanoha would always go after her, trying to make her see the truth, but Fate didn't want it. All she wanted was that Precia recognized her until that fateful day when her mother said that she was a failure, that she wasn't useful anymore.

At that moment, Fate's eyes widened as another memory of the confront with Scaglietti came to her mind.

_"...this body already reached its uselfulness..."_

Then the recent conversation that she had with him.

_"...has already been two thousand hours since I was locked up?"_

"Bardiche." The device blinked in response. "How much time has passed since our combat with Jail Scaglietti in his hideout?"

"Eighty three days, sir."

"In hours." Fate questioned again, aggravated.

"One thousand, nine hundred ninety eight hours and forty three minutes, sir." The device blinked.

Immediatly she reached for her comn. "Contact Hayate. Use the emergency mode."

* * *

Hayate paced about in her office, trying to figure out a way to do what she had to. There was no other way and she decided that she would do it herself instead of waiting for Fate to come back. It would be better if Scaglietti answered her questions, putting the final piece of the puzzle together, and they were sure of what was happening, but she still had her reservations as to what and how much he would talk. She thought about having Verossa scanning his mind, but it was too dangerous for him. One of the reasons why the Inspector had such a nonchalant behaviour was as selfdefense mechanism. It was to hide the inumerous amount of crueltys and atrocitys that passed through the minds of people that he had scanned in his career. She knew that and didn't want him to get anywhere near the mad doctor because of it.

Still, that didn't help the fact that she needed to tell Nanoha the news anyway. She sighed, as a knock came to the door. "Come in."

The Ace of Aces entered the room, still in her training uniform. She briefly surveyed the office and seeing that there was no one there aside from the brown haired girl, she relaxed. "Did you call me, Hayate-chan?" She asked, smiling.

Hayate looked at Nanoha, then turned her back to her. "H-Hmn." She stuttered. "Have a seat." She said signaling a chair for the other while walking behind her desk.

Nanoha took the few steps that separated her from the seat in question. "Is something wrong, Hayate-chan? You seem nervous."

The commander glanced briefly at her table, and the papers that were on top of it, before looking up at her friend. "I am. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm a nervous wreck at the moment."

"What happened?" Nanoha said, motioning to get up, but the other waved her hand, asking for her to be seated with the gesture.

"Oh, drats." Hayate finnaly snapped. It was now or never. She took a seat on her chair and propped her elbows on the table. "Nanoha-chan. I have something really important to tell you, but you have to promise me to stay calm."

Nanoha shifted in her seat. Hear someone saying to stay calm was almost like declaring that she should be nervous, whatever the reason. "I'm getting uneasy."

"Just promise me, okay?" She asked softly.

Nanoha nodded, still confused.

With a swift motion, Hayate stacked the papers she had on the table on a pile and prompted them to the girl to get them. "Here, look at this." When the brunette made motion to get the papers Hayate pulled them back again. "But remember. You promised." Hayate's tension was passing onto the other girl, as she saw her starting to sweat.

When Hayate was about to hand over the papers, an emergency call flashed in between them, getting a shriek from both of them as they jumped back in surprise. Hayate regained her composure moments later and answered the call. "Hayate. Run a regionwide scan for any AMF concentration." Fate started as soon as she saw Hayate's face.

"Huh...? Why?" The commander looked confused.

"Just trust me." Fate grimmaced.

Feeling the tone of the other she opened another window. "This is Commander Yagami to the Long Arch staff. I repeat, this is Commander Yagami for the Long Arch staff. Everyone, assemble in the control room on the double." Then turned again to the other window. "What's happening?"

"I'll tell eve..." She trailed off when she saw Nanoha there. "Did you tell her?"

"Not yet." Hayate's shoulder slumped. Truth be told, she was a little thankful for the sudden appearance of the Enforcer in the middle of it.

"Good. She needs to be in top form right now."

"What, what, what?" Nanoha finally spoke. "Hey, you two. Don't talk like I'm not here. What's happening? What is it that you're not telling me?"

Hayate looked at Fate. Both nodded at the same time. Then she turned to Nanoha. "We'll tell you everything after this, okay? Seems like we'll need to sortie, so can you gather the frontline team at the briefing room." Nanoha was about to interrupt again. "Please?"

The Ace snorted. "Okay, okay. I'm going." And stormed off the room.

"I'm going to the control room."

"I need permission to fly." Fate said.

"Granted. I'll contact you again from the control room." Hayate said, as she walked out of her office.

* * *

A/N: Yeah. I'm teasing at this point. If someone says that I'm enjoying doing that then all can I say is "Guilty as charged." XD Thanks for the reviews. They're like food to my poor soul. ^^ Keep'em coming.

I'm not sure if what Yuuno explains to Chrono in this chapter is completely accurate. I did a little research on the subject but I'm no expert.

As always, a round applause for F91-Raiser for beta'ing this for me. (I guess it's about time that I made this as a permanent shout in the fic.) He deserves it.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 5 - Siege**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

The silence in the control room was funeral and the tension, as the saying goes, could be cut with a knife. Only beeps and keying sounds could be heard. Fate was displayed on one of the monitors beside the commander's desk, dressed in her Impulse Form Barrier Jacket while standing on top of a building in the middle of the city. Nanoha, along with the three forwards plus Signum, were on another monitor looking at a countdown clock in front of them. It now read one minute and thirty seconds and counting.

Vita was in the lounge area, trying to figure out what was happening. Having been kicked out of the briefing room by Nanoha and Signum didn't help her get any less nervous. Vita understood why she had to stay in the base. They didn't want a repeat of what happened during the peace conference when all field combatants were sent to guard it and the base was attacked amidst all of it. Backing out of a fight was something that the redhaired hated doing. She could very well go there and smack whatever Scaglietti had prepared for them, if there was anything, but now she was tied to the base. The clock now read one minute and counting.

Teana was fiddling with a book in front of her, while lying down on her bed in the dorm, trying hard to memorize the text, but she lost count of the times she caught herself staring at the clock. She knew that they wouldn't let her participate in this mission, even if she was briefed on it. She couldn't do anything about it and that made her feel even more restless. Forty five seconds were still on the digital clock.

Subaru fiddled with her fingers, eyes darting to each person inside the chopper and at the clock. Erio was restless in his seat, shifting his position almost in synch with the clock. Caro reached to her squad mate's hand, grabbing it, and tryed to calm herself as he used his thumb to caress the back of her hand. Thirty seconds on the clock were still ticking.

Shari gulped hard. Her hands would wave back and forth nonstop, inserting command after command in the panel. Alto was with her hands lifted a little over her keyboard as if she was a pianist waiting to start her solo in a classical piece, her eyes glued on the screen before her. Lucino was typing away on her keyboard, checking and double checking again and again if all the sensors were working, trying to second guess if a reading would be missed. Fifteen seconds still waiting to pass by.

Hayate leaned forward on her chair as the seconds passed. The map of the whole Clanagan region, almost half of MidChilda, was on the other wall. She skimmed every inch of that map with her eyes, trying to somehow predict where the scans would locate the signal she didn't want to wait for. She didn't want to think that Scaglietti had prepared this beforehand, if he really had such a countermeasure planned. Maybe they all had given him a little too much credit. He was a madman, but even in his madness he was still a genius. Hayate hated to admit that, but it was the truth. Five long seconds in the clock.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

* * *

The knight was receiving a few guests in her office that day in the Saint Church. Being a member of the TSAB in a de-militarized zone, she was used to her office being used as a neutral room for conferences between disagreeing leaders of planet members. She wasn't required to stay in the room, hearing them discussing about industrialized goods and exchange information about routes with more security to transport them from one planet to another, but the good nature and upbringing of the blonde made her stay with her guests until the meeting was over. In this particular reunion she wasn't needed as a mediator since the parts weren't on bad terms with each other, but even so, she stayed there, paying attention to everything and voicing her opinion when prompted to do so. It was in the middle of this that a call from her brother appeared in front of her. The blonde was sure that she had redirected her calls to Sister Schach before the meeting started so there could be only one way her brother reached her without passing through the nun before. An emergency call.

"Gentleman, if you don't mind, I need to answer this." Upon seeing the men nod to her, she pressed the button and the green haired man appeared in the monitor.

"Hello, my dear." Verossa started, realizing that she wasn't alone. "I finally finished my duties and now I can finally do what we were waiting for through all these years." He said, a serious tone in his voice.

Carim's eyes narrowed slightly before turning into a gentle smile. "Oh, really. Could you remind me of what it is?"

"What else would it be? We can finally wed, my dear." He said, smiling.

Carim's eyes widened and then looked at the faces of the others in the room, then back at the screen. "Oh, what good news. Finally we can be together. What date do you think it would be better?"

"I don't know, my love. I think the best would be as soon as possible. I want to let Chrono and Hayate know about this fast. I can barely stand the wait anymore." Carim's expression changed slightly, shocked, but only a handful of people would notice anything on her demure. The men in the room were feeling somewhere in between annoyed and glad as the both soon-to-be-married couple spoke to each other, seemingly not caring anymore about the place they were at.

"Oh, Darling. Please, let me at least prepare my gown for the ceremony." She said nervously closing her hand on a fist below the table.

"I can't wait anymore. I'm going there immediately. I'll send a message to Hayate to meet us at the Church. See you soon, my dear." He said as the window closed and she looked at the others in the room.

"Please." A few tears starting to roll down her cheek. "Forgive my darling for his interruption in such a important meeting and for my lack of composure at the moment. I need to tell the news to a great friend of mine, immediately." The others nodded and she dialed again.

* * *

Nothing. Several minutes later, and nothing happened. No signal on the screens, no reaction on the sensors. Nothing at all. The three Long Arch operators scanned and scanned again and again in a fruitless effort to detect something that wasn't there.

Hayate was resisting the urge to sigh in relief. She had the feeling that something was happening. Something big. She couldn't justify it tough, but she stubbornly stayed on her seat, eyes still on the monitors. Even when she felt the restlessness of her subordinates she continued there. Waiting.

A wait that soon rewarded her. Not in the way she wanted though, as a signal was picked up and a red dot appeared on the screen.

"AMF concentration detected." Alto almost screamed, declaring what everyone in the room could already see.

"Coordinates being calculated." Shari echoed to the other. A few moments later. "Coordinates are..." She trailed off as the red dot seemed to multiply on the screen, first were several, that turned into dozens, that turned into hundreds.

"Sensors are working properly. It's not an error." Lucino voiced from the other side.

"Run the illusion pattern breaking code you guys used to discover the false units on the day we rescued Vivio." The commander ordered to the others, and soon enough, the number of points in the screen started to decrease until three of them remained in the end. Hayate frowned.

"The three points are real. We have visual." Shari said as three pictures appeared on the monitors. The entrance for a cavern in the far east point of the map, a rundown building in the lower part of the screen and an island in the middle of the west sea. "Deploying surveillance searchers." The bespectacled girl said.

Hayate's frown deepened as she looked at the two Aces in the monitor. Now what?

"We don't have time to think up a plan. We have to investigate the three places." Fate said. "I'll go to the far east point. I'm the fastest between us."

"I'll go with you, Testarossa." Signum voiced, behind the other Ace.

"Okay. I'll go to the island. The forwards will go to the urban point." Nanoha informed.

"I'll send Vita to back you up." Hayate finished. "Vice-kun, drop the forwards on the third point." He replied instantly as his device announced the opening of the main hatch of the chopper.

"We're getting off." Nanoha said, as she and Signum jumped and darted in different directions.

"Just remember," Fate warned in the open channel for all of them. "Whatever happens in those places, don't destroy the storage systems. We may need the data." She said, as she remembered that Project F had the memory transfer system. If they could scan the data of Jail's memorys then they could put together the answers that the mad doctor refused to give to her. The others nodded at her. She cut the link and started flying to her destination.

As soon as the squad captains took off, Vice warned the others still inside the chopper. "You'll be alone in there, kids. Take really good care."

A little after chopper dropped them, they found themselves in front of a two-story building. "Is this the place Shari?" Subaru asked through the comn link.

"Yes." There was static in the image and the sound was blurry but understandable.

"The concentration is strong there. Be careful, we don't know what you'll find in there." Hayate informed.

The three saluted. "Yes, sir." Then Subaru turned to two younger ones. "Let's go." They both nodded and entered the building.

There was no door in the door-frame and the windows were gone; just shattered glass on the ground. Subaru entered first, slowly followed by Caro with Erio guarding the rear. They looked around the first floor and found nothing out of the ordinary. They moved further inside the building to the stairs and up to the second floor. There was a big hall, with all windows in the same state as the ones in the first floor but nothing else aside from a few broken chairs.

They climbed back down again, looking for something that they had missed the first time they passed through the floor, but the search was fruitless. Subaru was getting more and more restless with every step they took. The pink haired summoner was nervous too and the red haired lancer seemed unfazed by the situation and only followed the two ladies, alert to his surroundings.

They walked to the backdoor and when nothing was found again, Subaru groaned. "Damn. What the hell? There's nothing here. Where is this AMF coming from?"

Erio put Strada on the floor, supporting himself with it. "Is it a dud?"

Caro lifted her hands, trying to feel the magical waves in the vicinity, and trying to read them. "I'm picking up a faint signal." She declared as she pointed to the backdoor. "It's coming from there." At this the blue haired girl opened the door and they saw a backalley, with the building next to it casting a shadow on the place. "There." Caro pointed to a manhole in the backalley.

Subaru walked to it and opened it. The three of them instantly felt the AMF getting stronger. "Well, I think we found what we were looking for."

"Let's go." Erio said, as he jumped inside the manhole, followed shortly after by the two of them.

* * *

Chrono took his seat in the bridge of the Claudia, still digesting the information he got from Yuuno. He closed his eyes and felt his body jolt and tremble as the lack of sleep caught up to him and he realised that. He opened his eyes immediately, frowning. Now wasn't the time to sleep. "Laika." He called one of his operators.

"Yes, sir?" The blonde woman asked.

"Can you ask someone to bring me a cup of coffee. Black. No sugar."

"Are you okay, sir?"

"Yeah. Just lack of sleep." He put his hands on the guards of his chair and leaned his head back, closing his eyes again. Now what? Nanoha could be considered Vivio's mother, but since she had no recollection of the events, this shouldn't bother her. Was it really necessary for her to know about it? She already had her daughter with her, and was happy with her. She was supposed to continue that way, if Verossa hadn't discovered that information. Chrono waved his head and opened his eyes.

No. His sense of duty wouldn't allow him to continue to lie to his friend. It wouldn't let him just brush aside the fact that the culprits behind all what happened six years ago were free. And if he was going after those bigshots, he would need to turn the whole situation public. Without Nanoha's consent he couldn't do that, as it would turn her life in a living hell. He got up from his seat at the same time that one of the clerks came with his coffee in a tray. He thanked the woman and gulped the drink at once, feeling the hot liquid burning his throat. "I'll be in my office." He said, getting out of the bridge and walking down the corridors of the ship.

When he was a few paces away from his office a call flashed on his side.

"Hello, Admiral Chrono." The blonde started as soon as she noticed the man.

"Hello, Knight Carim." He greeted the woman before starting to voice his thoughts, still walking to his office. "I did a little research on the subject and I'm still not-"

"I have wonderful news, my friend." Chrono stopped at once. The tone in the other's voice wasn't something that he was used to.

"Really?" He examined the woman's face better through the window. She was... crying?

"Yes. My dear Verossa finally proposed to me." She said as he noticed a sob from her. His eyes widened and shortly after he frowned, increasing his pace towards the room. He opened and took a seat on his table.

"And when will be the wedding?" He asked, noticing that she wasn't alone.

"Darling says as soon as possible. He's coming here to see me."

"Really?! But it's so sudden." His eyes narrowed.

"Yes, it is." She said cheerfully. "It's a wonderful moment." She emphasized.

"It really is." He got up and started to pace about in front of the window. "But how about the honeymoon? Have you decided on a place yet?"

The woman seemed to think for a moment. "I didn't really. They say that Mau Gram is a wonderful place for newlyweds. Some prisoners there worked very hard and transformed the place into a incredible resort. I heard that the tea leaves this time of the year are the best."

"I see." He forced a smile while sitting on his chair again. "I need to let Hayate know of the news then."

"Oh, don't worry, Darling is already taking care of that."

Chrono sat back against the chair. "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem. Bye." She said as the window in front of him disappeared.

He shot up from his desk again and dashed out of the room. Moments later he was already at the bridge again, sleepiness all but forgotten. "Prepare for depart immediately." He said as he sat on the captain's chair.

* * *

Fate got to the entrance of the cave a few moments before her pinkhaired friend and squad companion landed a few feet behind her. "Long Arch, I'm at the cave."

"Copy that." Shari answered. "Nothing has changed in the area since we found it."

"Okay." She turned to the other, then nodded. "We're going in."

"Roger." The bespectacled operator answered again.

They didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in the cave's entrance. No alarm was set off and no trap was triggered. The humidity on the walls was heavy and the air damp. A few of the walls had fungus growing in it, and spiders' webs danced in front of them. But there was a really great concentration of AMF in that place, and the more they got into the cavern, stronger it got. They walked a few more steps and found a pit, seemingly excavated in the rock by artificial means, not by the hand of mother nature.

"Let's go down." Fate floated in the air and started to descend, being shortly after followed by the Belkan Knight. When they landed, they noticed a door in one of the walls. The place was illuminated by two lamps on each side of the door. They walked to it and it opened as soon as they got in the range of the sensors. Each jumped to one side of it, weapons drawn. When nothing happened they looked inside of it and found a corridor, with several openings in the walls, like a gallery. The blonde took a few steps inside, peeking at each side of the corridor. The corridor was arc shaped, like the one she had seen in Scaglietti's hideout. One side ended a few feet from the door, and the other went further and she couldn't see the end of it.

They walked through that corridor a few more steps, until they saw that a cave in blocked the passage further. "Bardiche." Fate called for her device.

"Yes, sir."

"Show me the layout of Scaglietti's last hideout." The device blinked a few times as a series of windows appeared in front of her. After examining them a few seconds she closed the windows and walked a few more steps, then jumped and stood hovering. "Signum, give me some space." The pink haired nodded and floated to side. The blonde started to concentrate various energy balls around her. "Photon Lancer." The energy balls form transform into daggers. "Phalanx Shift." The daggers launch themselves to the ground creating a cloud of dust and magical smoke as each explode against the floor. After the dust cleared they could see an opening in the floor. Fate looked at her companion and then floated down the opening to reach the floor below.

They were in a large room with walls identical to the ones in the first floor, but the gallery in the walls were occupied by several immobile drones that only projected the AMF field. It didn't take long for her eyes to adjust to the low light of the room and see the green liquid in a cylindrical shaped glass few steps away from where she landed in the center of the room. In the far end she saw the steps that would go to the first floor with the rock closing the way up.

Signum descended too and immediately walked to the cylinder. She found a control panel behind it. "I guess we found what we were looking for." Beside the control panel were a few equipment and windows.

Fate walked to the cylinder and looked inside, seeing only the green liquid and a few bubbles form at the bottom going up. It didn't seem like that place was better guarded. "Maybe this was abandoned once the cave in occurred." She voiced her thoughts.

The Belkan knight frowned. "Maybe. Let's report this place."

"What is it, Signum?" Fate asked when she noticed the Belkan Knight with a doubtful look on her face.

"Doesn't this place look like a decoy?" She said, walking around the equipment in the center of the room. "There's a lifepod and some machinery, but nothing more. It looks more like a deposit than a lab to me."

Fate looked around and came to the same conclusion. The place didn't have anything else inside, just the aforementioned. "Not to mention it wasn't guarded at all." She said again. "We'll ask Shari to scan these to see if she can get some data on it." The blonde said pointing to the equipment. "Lightning one to Long Arch. Come in." Before she could call in again, a window flashed on her side with a waiting call from her brother.

* * *

The three forwards were in horrible shape. After fighting their way down the lanes and alleways of that building, they had finally got to what was more likely the door to the place they were looking for. Subaru rubbed her left eye, trying to dry off some of the excess blood that was now closing it without much success. She groaned and decided to let the matter go. Tapping her pockets she found that she still had four full magazines to reload her knuckle. If worst came to worst she still had her combat cyborg mode to enter if necessary.

She looked at Caro, who was in a little better shape than her, but was still battered. Several times her shield had saved them during this little expedition. Her right arm was bleeding, and Kerykeyon had a crack in it from a unlucky shot that one of the drones had fired at the cyborg and she deflected in the direction of the pink haired summoner. Kerykeyon's autoshield wasn't enough in the AMF environment they were in at the moment, and part of the shot hit the device directly.

"Stars Three to Long Arch." Subaru said after they reached what seemed to be lab with lifepods sprinkled all over the walls. Various humanoid figures in each of them, each different from the other. Some were children, some adult, some were teenagers, others had one or two limbs less, while others didn't had skin. The cyborg shivered at every glance she did at the pods. "Stars Three to Lond Arch. Come in, Long Arch." No answer.

All around them, the remains of several drones of various designs that they destroyed while climbing down to the place they were at. Erio was limping on his right leg, as one of the drones appeared seemingly out of nowhere and hit him hard on the leg before Subaru could help him. Part of his Barrier Jacket was torn by a misguided Blast Ray fired by Fried at some drones while he was engaging them. "Maybe the AMF is blocking the communication. Let's get out of here and call them again from outside."

"Yes, let's do that." Caro said while they got out of the place.

* * *

The Ace of Aces was flying faster than what should be safe for a human body. Her breathing ragged and her body shivering with the cold air hitting the parts that weren't protected by her Barrier Jacket. The sky turned into a ominous gray as the rain clouds started to hide the sun, but now she couldn't be bothered by them. She couldn't slow her pace. If Jail was about to be reborn somewhere she had to do something. She had to do everything she could so that his plans failed. The island came into her view. "Stars one to Long Arch."

"Proceed Stars one. We're hearing you loud and clear."

"I'm nearing the island. Nothing seems out of ordinary so far." She said a few moments before landing on the sandy beach.

"The readings are coming somewhere in the middle of the island. Proceed with caution. Stars two has taken off from the base. She'll get to your position in T minus twelve minutes."

"Understood." Nanoha said, as she floated again, slowly, trying to look through the treetops.

Few moments later she spotted what looked like an abandoned facility. She landed a few paces away from it, the surrounding ground covered by leaves, but below the dead foliage was sand. The grey walls of it were mostly taken by the moss until a few feet from the ground, where the tides washed them. She walked a few steps, holding Raising Heart in front of her. She got to the gate and tried to pry it open, but to no avail. She tried again, forcing a little more, but the gate didn't budge. She gave up and floated above the wall and to the other side.

When she landed, a call flashed at her side, startling her. Nanoha looked at it again, noticing what it was, then took a deep breath to settle herself. She read the ID of the caller: Ralgo Kill. Why would the general call her at such a time? And how did he manage to call her directly while she was on a mission and her device was set to battle mode? She didn't have those answers, but decided to receive the call anyway.

She saluted. "General."

"Oh, good afternoon, Captain Takamachi." He said smiling at the girl.

"What can I do for you, sir." She said, still in salute. "As you can see I'm in the middle of a mission."

"Oh, I can see, but Captain I need you to take a look at these codes for a moment." The image of the General disappeared from the screen and it started to appear a seemingly random sequence of letters, symbols and numbers.

Nanoha at first tought that it was some error in the transmission, but strangely each character felt familiar, each sequence more engaging, each line seemed to have a meaning of its own.

A few moments later, the General appeared again in the screen. "So, Captain Takamachi..."

"Sorry, General." She gripped tightly on the handle of her staff. "I have something to do right now. I'll talk to you later." Anger rising in her voice, she took off from where she was.

"I'm sorry. I won't disturb you then." The General said, smiling.

* * *

"... T minus twelve minutes." Hayate heard Alto answer Nanoha. In the monitors, Fate and Signum were in the entrance of the cave, Nanoha was landing on the beach of the island and the forwards were entering the building.

She was sitting on the edge of her chair when a message appeared on her table monitor. "A message from Verossa...?" She wondered out loud before reading the title. Invitation for the wedding. Hayate shot her hand at once at the monitor, opening the message and skimming through it fast then rereading everything that was on it. "Oh, god. Not now."

Reinforce, that was on her shoulder, read the message too. "Verossa and Carim are getting married?"

"Shari, call all teams back. Get everyone out of there." The commander yelled, ignoring the little device's question.

"Wha..." Shari stuttered. "What's wrong?"

"Just do it." Then she reached for her communication link and started. "This is Commander Yagami Hayate to all Riot 6. I repeat, this is Commander Yagami Hayate to all Riot 6. Everyone get out of the base immediately." At that moment she was thankful for all the evacuation practice sessions she had done to the base's personnel. "Backyard and Support Staff use exiting points one, two and three. The rest of the staff use points four, five and six. This is not a drill session. I repeat, this is not a drill session."

The operators in the room were scared with the affrighted tone of their commander. "Commander Yagami..." Alto started, but was cut off.

"You too. Get the hell out of here. Hurry!" Hayate shouted at the three that were sitting in front of her.

"Communication link is down, Commander Yagami." Shari said, ignoring the order. "We can't call the frontline team."

"Forget it! Get the hell out of here, now!" She said as they scrambled out of the room. "Rein, call Shamal and Zafira. Meet me at the main gate."

The little silverhaired girl saluted briskly and shot out in the direction contrary to where Hayate was going.

The commander dashed to her office, entered and retrieved the documents that were on top of the table, then got out of the room and started to run in the direction of the main gate. When she got to the front hall she met with her two knights.

"What's happening?" The blonde asked.

"I just received the invitation for Verossa and Carim's wedding." Hayate answered as if the blonde understood what that meant.

"What?" She stopped in her tracks, stunned. "What does that mean?"

The brown haired looked at Shamal then breathed heavily. "Sorry, it's a code. Carim, Rossa, Chrono-kun and me created a code for talking to each other when things were bad and we thought that our conversations were being tapped through the comn links." She turned again to the door. "The message I received from Verossa meant that we are in deep trouble."

In that moment a loud speaker was heard outside the base. The dull gray sky roaring with thunder and lightining. "This is the TSAB's Special Unit to Riot Force's Six. You're under siege for breaking TSAB regulations. You're not allowed to leave this base until further notice. Anyone trying to leave the perimeter without permission will be shot on sight. I repeat, anyone trying to leave the perimeter without permission will be shot on sight."

Hayate was at the front gate, then backtracked a few steps as she saw the various choppers and aerial mages hovering outside the base, circling it.

"Anyone but the following are allowed to leave the perimeter." The voice came again, announcing. "Yagami Hayate and the Wolkenritter, Fate Testarossa Harlaown, Subaru Nakajima, Teana Lanstar, Erio Maondial, Caro Ru Lushe. I repeat, anyone but the following..."

"What the..." Hayate jumped as the rest of the Long Arch Staff came from inside the building. "Why are you guys still here."

"We couldn't get out. All escape routes are being monitored by them." Lucino said, pointing to exit.

"They'll let you pass. They only want me, my knights and the frontline team."

"And miss out on all the fun?" Shari grinned. "No way. I'm staying with you, if you want it or not." The other three nodded at that.

"Want me to go out there and talk to them?" The only man in the room asked.

"I think I said for you to get out of here. God knows what we are being accused of. If they bide by their what they said, you can get out without trouble."

"I can't do that. My mother would kill me, not to mention my conscience." Griffith said. "I'll go talk to them." And started to the door.

* * *

The redhaired Belkan Knight stopped midflight when her communication link with the base was cut. She wondered what was happening back there and thought about going back, but decided not to. It was probably a maintenance problem with the link that they would get over soon enough. She resumed her flying in the direction she was going before.

A few moments later she saw a pink dot in the distance, amidst all the gray clouds. _"Nanoha."_ She called mentally. No response. _"Oi, Nanoha."_ She tried again. She could already make out the features of her friend in the middle of the pink energy. She was flying faster than what was normal for her. Vita stopped midflight again, waiting the other to get near enough so she could call her with voice rather than mentally. The Belkan knight was starting to wonder if it was her comn link that was damaged rather than the base's.

"NANOHA!!!" She screamed as the Ace of the Sky passed by her, without slowing down at all. Vita was rather stunned by the way the Ace looked at her. In the split second that they made eye contact it seemed as if she was glaring at her. She took off after her, but could barely keep her in her sight as the pink energy got smaller and smaller.

* * *

They took him in custody. There it was. Anyone that would try to help the commander now would receive the same treatment. She turned to three other women in the lounge. "Get out of here. Don't try to help like he did, else you'll be locked up." She hissed at them. "That's an order."

When they made mention to not follow the order, Hayate slumped. The message came too late and she was trapped. She looked outside again and saw the gray sky change slowly, as a purpleish barrier was being formed around the base. "Great. Now we're really trapped." Hayate knew that she could blast out of that barrier in one shot, but couldn't do it at that moment. She gulped hard, trying to think of something, anything to get her out of there and to the meeting point, the Saint Church, but nothing seemed to come to her mind.

Then she remembered that Teana was still at the base, or at least she hoped so if they didn't catch her when she was evacuating the building.

_"Teana, where are you?"_ She called mentally hoping that the gunslinger could answer.

_"Inside the dorm."_ Teana answered. "_I didn't have time to get out before they started to announce who was supposed to be under siege."_

_"Good. Go to Nanoha's room and take Vivio with you."_ Hayate already knew that the other was supposed to be resting, but that wasn't an issue at the moment.

_"Roger._" She answered.

Hayate was thinking of what to do next when a sudden blast of pink energy shot the barrier, destroying a good portion of it, as the Ace of Aces entered through it. Hayate walked to the gate, waiting for her friend to come closer.

But something wasn't right. The men weren't attacking her. Reinforce voiced the thoughts before Hayate could process. "Nanoha-san wasn't on the list that they said that were under siege."

Hayate's eyes widened as the brunette landed on the road outside the main gate. Her head downcast, gripping hard on the handle of her device. The commander knew at that moment that something was definitely wrong. "Nanoha-chan..." She called weakly.

"I wonder..." The brunette said, head still down. "Where did I go wrong?" She started to lift her head slowly. "What did I do to deserve something like this?"

"Nanoha-chan, what are you talking about?" She took a step in the direction of her friend.

"Did you regret it so much when I destroyed Reinforce?" Hayate could see the part of Nanoha's face, the rest was covered by her bangs. Her cheeks seemed to have wet trails going down.

"Nanoha...-chan?"

"Did you hate me so much that you wanted to kill me?" She lifted her head more, but her eyes were still hidden.

"Kill you?" Hayate said surprised. Where the hell did that idea came from? "What are you talking about?"

"If it was a few months ago, I wouldn't have said anything and just let you kill me, you know? If it made you happy, I would willingly let go of my life for you. I thought that you were my friend." Raising Heart's tip started to glow a faint pink light. Hayate was stupefied. She didn't understand at all what was happening.

Behind her friend, she noticed that the choppers and the aerial mages were going outside the barrier.

"Blaster Second." Raising Heart called as two blaster bits appeared beside the brunette and a MidChildan magic sigil appeared on her feet.

"But now, Hayate-chan, I can't do that anymore." Nanoha looked fully at the commander, eyes red from the tears flowing endlessly. "I have a daughter to take care of now. I'm sorry Hayate-chan, but you'll need to pay for your crimes." She pointed her staff to Hayate. "Cristal Cage." The blaster bits flew in the commanders direction forming a pyramid. "Lock."

"Hayate-chan!" Shamal called from inside the building and started to dash, alongside Zafira and Reinforce, to their mistress.

"Holding Net." Raising Heart called, as a pink energy net covered the three of them, holding them to the ground. The Ace started to walk in their direction when a sequence of steel balls hit the floor in front of her and she had to take flight backwards to evade them.

"Nanoha-chan!" Hayate whimpered from inside the cage.

"What do you think you're doing?" The redhaired Belkan knight got in between Nanoha and Hayate. "Nanoha!"

"Vita-chan?" Nanoha smiled. A dry smiled, without any humour. "I know that you were forced to do it. Don't worry, I know that you guys always need to follow the master of the Book of Darkness. I'll make sure that you aren't imprisoned along with that traitor."

"Nanoha? What the hell are you talking about?! It's Hayate. Hayate! Don't you remember her?" Vita said, as she flew backwards and swinged Graf Eisen in Gigantform to destroy the Cristal Cage, without even looking back.

"Oh, I remember her very well. How much she must have plotted against me in all these years. If I knew I would probably let her do what she wanted." Nanoha sighed. "I'm sorry Vita-chan. I know that you guys can't do anything but protect your master, even if it's a deject of a master like her." She pointed her device to them, as almost a full magazine of cartridges are loaded in.

"Raising Heart." Reinforce tryed to call for the device. "Stop that. What happened to your master?"

"My master is my master. And I'll protect her no matter what situation is." The device blinked.

Hayate was a nervewreck. She couldn't believe that one of her best friends was attacking her like that. _"And she's thinking that I want to kill her?"_ She thought.

"Divine..." Nanoha started to call at the same time that Shamal managed to undo the Holding Net.

"Klarer Wind." The blonde called.

"...Buster!" The Ace yelled. A blast of pink energy flew in their direction, being stopped inches away from hitting it's target by a green energy field protection.

"Stoooop!" Vita screamed as she launched herself in the direction of the Ace. "Rocket Hammer!" She called as her device grew even larger before colliding against Nanoha's shield, sizzling with the contact as she put more pressure in the blow. Seeing her shield about to be destroyed Nanoha flew back a few yards, and out of the range of the little one's attack.

"Frieren Fesseln!" Reinforce called as soon as she was in range to cast her spell. A swirl of blueish white enveloped the Ace of Aces, before it froze in a cocoon around the girl. "Nanoha-san, stop it, please!" The cocoon exploded in a pink burst of energy sending parts of it to all sides.

"Restrick Lock." Raising Heart called again, tying both Vita and Reinforce with pink strings of energy.

"I'm sorry, I really am." Nanoha said as magical energy started to gather from around her in the tip of her staff. "I'm sorry that you guys had to put up with such a horrible master."

Hayate was a shell of what she normally was. The confident and easygoing commander could only watch in disbelief as one of her best friends attacked her again.

"Starlight..." Nanoha started to call, as both Reinforce and Vita struggled against the binds holding them down.

_"I can't stop a Starlight Breaker on my own." _Was the grim thought that came to Shamal. _"But I need to protect Hayate-chan at all costs."_ She pulled Hayate into her arms, then called for the guardian beast on her side. "Zafira!" The wolf growled and a series of white spikes shot from the ground creating a wall around the group. "Klarer Wind, please." The blonde called for her device and a green wall appeared in front of the spiked wall. _"Maybe I can't protect against it, but I can at least deflect it."_

"...Breaker!" Nanoha called as the energy gathered in the ball in front of her shot in the direction of the commander. The impact of the energy shot against Shamal's shield sent shockwaves through the ground in what seemed most like an earthquake.

Part of the energy bounced at the shield and was sent in disarray exploding far to the their left side, in a pink burst.

"Oh my god, noooooooooo!" The little unison device screamed as she saw where the energy exploded. It was Riot 6's dorms. "Viviooo!"

* * *

A/N: Oh boy. I made note not to write another long chapter, and what happens? My longest chapter to date again. *sigh*

About the story itself, I don't know if I should say "Poor Nanoha" or "Poor Hayate". Maybe both?

Thanks for the reviews, guys. In deathcurse's words in the AS forum, "It's nice to know that the story is engaging enough for you to start speculating what would happen next."

Again, thanks for F91-Raiser for proofreading and giving me his opinions on this.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 6 - Hurt**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

The pain. Ah, the pain. Pain to breathe, pain to walk, pain to move. Pain. Pain. Pain. The orange haired gunslinger was getting too familiar with that feeling. She swore that if she was some kind of masochist this would be one of the most delightful experiences in her whole life, but since that wasn't the case, it was a living hell. Breathing and walking at the same time sent spasms of pain and her chest throbbed at every step. She couldn't find a position, lying or standing, that didn't hurt. Of course, some positions were more comfortable, as the pain would be reduced to something like an annoying feeling but now she couldn't even wince because of the heavy breathing since she was asking for it. She was running to her teacher and squad superior's dormitory room. She got to the corridor and saw the door closing. She walked to it and knocked.

"Who is it?" Someone asked from the other side. A woman's voice.

"It's me, Teana. Aina-san, open up." The gunslinger informed. After that it was silent from the other side. Or maybe not. Her senses were so focused on her heartbeats that maybe it wasn't so silent on the outside, but she couldn't care less. Several seconds passed and the door didn't open. "Aina-san?"

"Go away! I'm not letting you people take Vivio." Was the muffled response she answered. Teana was completely puzzled.

"What?" Was the obvious question that came to her. "Open up, Aina-san. We have to get out of here."

"No. You just want a hostage. I'm not letting Vivio go with you. Go away." Teana could make out the fear on the woman's voice, even if muffled by the door. Why was she so set on this?

"Aina-san, please. I'm not taking hostages. I want to take you two to a safer place." The girl tried again to coerce the woman.

"Go away. Go away." Teana heard the woman screaming. Why is she saying this? She looked outside, and the impending rain, and saw the purpleish barrier being destroyed by the pink burst of energy.

"Look, I'm just gonna get Vivio to her mother, that's all." She tried one more time, but the only answer to her was the woman's wail. She decided that she couldn't wait anymore. "Please, Cross Mirage." Her device blinked and her Barrier Jacket flared around her. She pointed one of her guns to the door and started firing. One, two, three times, until the lock finally gave in and a little opening appeared. "Dagger Mode." She called as one of her guns changed shape. She tried to pry the door open using it, but suddenly the door opened fully and on the other side, the woman launched a chair at her. The orange headed reacted instantly, getting on her knee and changing her second gun into it's second shape, blocking the downward attack. "Aina-san. Stop it. We don't have time to fight amongst ourselves."

"Go away. I'm not letting you terrorists get a hold of Vivio." The woman said backing out a few steps into the room, hands fumbling through the tables and chairs, seeking for something to grab. On the corner of the room, Vivio was curled, crying for her mother.

"Terrorists?! Aina-san. I'm not a terrorist." She said, then realized that she was pointing both knives in the direction of the woman. "Cross Mirage. Mode Release." They disappeared then turned into it's card form. "There must be some kind of mistake here."

"There's no mistake. You guys always wanted to get to Nanoha-san, right?" The woman grabbed a vase and threw it at Teana before running inside the room.

Teana dodged the projectile, and winced hard at the throb her ribs sent. "Aina-san, we have to get out of here." The girl looked at the couches and saw the screen for a local TV channel. The headline was... "Breaking news: Terrorists uncovered on Riot's 6?! What the hell is that?!" She asked to the screen as the images displayed a blue-purple forcefield enveloping the base's area. She couldn't hear anything from it, as it volume was too low, but pictures of her and various others from the staff were showcased. "Aina-san, I don't know what is this, but it's a lie. We never did anything like this. We..."

"Liar!!!" The woman screamed as she rushed to the orange haired girl, with a kitchen knife on hand. Teana instinctively dodged the attack, grabbed the woman's wrist and twisted her arm, locking it on the woman's back, forcing her to release the weapon.

"Aina-san, I don't know what's happening, but we have to get out of here. Come with me, please?" The gunslinger pleaded one more time.

"No. I'll not allow you to take Vivio and do the same thing as that derranged man did to her." The woman barked, struggling against the girls grasp. She was stunned that such a small girl could have so much strenght.

"I'm sorry, Aina-san, but we don't have time to fight." Teana tone changed from the diplomatic one she had been using till that moment to a clear and demanding one. "Cross Mirage." Her device blinked as orange bind held the woman. Then she turned to the girl. "Vivio, come with me. We have to get out of here." The girl started screaming and crying. "We have to-"

In that moment she saw a giant pink energy burst coming in their direction. The rest was a blurr and then all she saw was darkness.

* * *

"Stars Three to Long Arch." Subaru called when they were near the manhole to exit the place. "Come in."

"Nothing yet?" The pinkhaired summoner asked as she put her hands in the ladder.

"No. Something isn't right here. At least some static should come." The cyborg answered.

When they finally got out of the manhole, they heard several devices being armed. "Freeze. You're under arrest."

"Wha..." Caro jumped backwards and hid herself behind Erio.

Subaru looked at the men around her, dumbfounded. "What's this about?"

"Don't resist, or we'll retaliate." The one that appeared to be the officer voiced. "Come quietly and no one needs to get hurt."

"There must be some kind of mistake. We're here on official orders by Commander Yagami from Riot Force Six." Subaru said. "Contact them and I'm sure..."

"Silence. Everything you say can and will be used against you in court. You have the right to a..." The man started.

_"What now?"_ Erio asked mentally, changing Strada's position to be on guard.

Subaru seemed to think for a little while, then... _"Let's go with them. I'm sure that whatever is happening is some kind of mistake."_

"Disengange your devices." Another one ordered, and the three of them complied. Shortly after they were handcuffed with binds and were being escorted through the building and outside again in the direction of a few cars. Vice was there, too, cuffed and being inspected by two men.

"Hey, there, kiddo. Got caught too, huh?" He said to the redhaired that was just shoved at his side with a grunt. The officers got their devices and then escorted them to a nearby chopper.

_"What happened, Seargent Vice?"_ The pinkhaired asked, trembling while being pushed by a woman.

_"Beats me. They made me land shortly after you guys entered that building."_ The pilot answered.

They were shoved inside the chopper, where three others were sitting with their staffs pointed to them. _"There's few things that I don't like in my life, and being treated as a criminal is definetly getting on the list."_ Subaru sent mentally to the other three.

The three nodded. Shortly after they were sitting inside, a blurr of yellow projectiles landed all around them, knocking out most of the officers that were there. "Release them at once." A woman's voice thundered from outside.

"Fate-san!" Erio and Caro said at the same time recognizing the voice of their guardian.

One of the men got up and pointed his staff in the direction of the blonde. "Fate Testarossa Harlaown, you're under arrest for breaking TSAB's regulations. Please disengage your weaponry and come quietly." The others started to get up too, as the chopper began to take off.

"These accusations are false," Fate said, before lauching an arc of yellow thunder magic in the direction of the propellers, cutting them clean from the chopper, that came back down the few feet that had taken off, landing rather hard on the street. "I don't have time to explain the situation for you, but please, believe me."

The men didn't answer and started to fire a shower of energy shots at the blonde who was hovering. She started to dodge a few of them. Then her device called "Defenser." A yellow sphere of energy enveloped the woman who stood there.

"I don't want to hurt them. They are only doing their job." She tought. "But now I don't have time to explain everything." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. But I need them right now."

"Ring Bind." They heard a voice behind them as a ring of energy caught them and tied them together.

"Arf!" Fate said, as soon as she caught wind of her familiar in the ground.

"Hehe." Arf, still on her child form, grinned at them. "I haven't lost my touch." She walked to them and, after a quick search, she retrieved the four devices. Meanwhile, Fate had already binded the other mages that were in the destroyed chopper. "Yuuno told everything. I came to help out." The familiar answered the unsponken question.

"Bind Break." Bardiche called, while Fate was pointing it to the binds around the wrists of the four prisoners.

"Fate-san, what's happening?" Vice asked, as he caught Stormraider from Arf.

"I still don't know all of the details, but basically, someone set us up." The blonde answered.

"Get together, people. I never used this since Yuuno taught me, so I don't know if it's going to work." Arf said, concentrating. "Transporter High!" She called.

An instant later, they disappeared from the place, leaving the officers behind.

* * *

"Vivio?!" Nanoha said, as she watched in disbelief as the place where the little unison device was looking exploded with the remnants of her own magic spell. The building where her room was located was now collapsing on itself, sending dust and debris through the air. "Oh, my god, no!" She darted to the place.

"Hayate-chan? Hayate-chan! Hayate-chan!!!" Shamal started to call the brown haired commander, but she didn't answer, as she fell limp on her shoulder. The doctor started immediately to look at her, searching for something that could have pierced the girls body, but found nothing. She wasn't bleeding at all and she was only unconcious. The blonde looked around her, and saw that the others too had fallen unconcious.

"Hayate!" Vita called for her mistress, after finally she and Reinforce released themselves from the binds. The four of them circled their mistress with concerned looks. "What happened to Nanoha?" The redhaired asked the others.

"I don't know." The blonde was shaking. "First we were declared under siege by the TSAB, then they raised that barrier and then Nanoha-chan destroyed it and started to attack Hayate-chan." Vita didn't even realize until that moment that she was inside said barrier.

"She said that Hayate wanted to kill her." Zafira informed. "What happened out there?" Was the guardian turn to question.

"I don't know. I found Nanoha midway to the mission location. She was coming back, full speed, and didn't answer me." The redhaired sighed. "What the hell happened on that island? Did Scaglietti do something to her?"

The rain started to fall hard in that moment. "I don't know, but that doesn't explain why her name wasn't on the list of the ones that were under siege." The blonde grimaced and then looked behind the redhaired. "Watch out!" She lifted her hand, as another barrier formed itself behind the said girl, enveloping all of them, as another pink beam of magical energy collided against it.

* * *

The pinkhaired Belkan Knight could see the barrier enveloping the Riot six base from a good distance. That didn't help her soothe her worries, as she flew through the Clanagan sky. Was she too late?

"Identify yourself. This area is off limits." A chopper appeared in front of Signum.

She stopped midair and voiced. "This is Liutenant Signum, from Riot Force Six. I have permission of flight given by Commander Yagami."

A few seconds passed as another chopper and a few aerial mages started to surround the knight. Then the loud speaker came again. "Signum of the Wolkenritter, you're under arrest for breaking TSAB regulations. Please disengage your weaponry and come quietly with us."

Signum looked at the mages then at the barrier on Riot Six's base. "I have not done such a thing. I demand to speak with Commander Yagami."

"You'll be allowed to speak with her once you're both in custody. I repeat, disengage your weaponry and..." The voice didn't had time to finish it's sentence as the pinkhaired knight dashed in the direction of the barrier.

The mages that were around started to fire at the knight as she flew around, dodging the shots that came at her. Moments later she was within range of the barrier and saw the enourmous amount of people around it, holding the barrier in place. "Sorry, but I need to enter. Laevatein." She calls for her device while holding the sheath near the hilt of the sword.

"Bogenform!" It answers, as a string conects the ends, forming a bow. "Sturm Falke" A beam of red flaming energy is fired from the bow in the direction of the barrier, destroying a portion of it.

The rest of the barrier starts to crumble, and the knight sees a few of the mages that were holding it up falling to the ground. "Sorry for this, but I need to get in there." She puts her bow aside and call for the device again. "Laevatein."

"Schwertform." The device goes back to its sword form.

Once the barrier falls she sees a explosion of pink energy attacking the entrance of the base, but can't make out who's attacking in the middle of the heavy rain that was beginning to fall.

* * *

Shamal's shields weren't enough to defend them against the pink energy shot, and Vita had to use her own shields and her own body to defend her friends against the overwhelming fire capacity of her squadmate's attack. She fell limp on her knees in the exact moment the attack receeded, using her device to support her and prevent a complete fall to the floor. She didn't even have the energy to turn herself fully to her back to look at her friend.

The redhaired Belkan Knight was torn. On one side, she had her duties to her mistress as a member of the Wolkenritter, on the other she had the true friendship feelings that she developed through the years with the Ace of the Sky.

An Ace that now was on her back. An Ace that was torn with lies and angst, shouting and doing unbelievable things. She stood there, waiting for the Ace to do something else, aside for wail the name of her daughter. Her hair and clothes wet by the rain that was falling ruthlessly and uncaring. Her eyes dark and without emotion. Her face twitching, and mucus coming out of her nostrils, being washed by the raindrops. Her body slumped as she stood midair, as if being carried by a invisible crane tied to her back. The only thing that showed that the woman was torn was her wail, her cry for her lost child. Then the wailing stopped and her body started, ever so slowly, to get back into an erect position.

The belkan knights could only watch as the hands of the Ace, bleeding with her grasp on Raising Heart's handle, getting tighter. Her body trembling from time to time, be it for the cold rain that fell on her, or be it for the sadness to loose someone precious. The Ace looked fully at her enemy. Lying on the arms of the blonde, few feet away from the little knight, unconcious. The Ace stood there, hands moving, pointing her device in the direction of the group. She didn't care anymore. The people that would undoubtly be washed by whatever magical attack she was preparing, she couldn't care about them anymore. The only one thing that she cared in the moment was that feeling of emptiness in her chest, a feeling that deep down she knew it wouldn't be filled by destroying her enemy, but, at the moment, she couldn't care about it. Her enemy had to pay for their crimes. Her enemy had to pay for what they've done in the past. Her enemy had to pay for taking away from her most precious feeling.

The device announce the activation of the Blaster Three mode, uncaring tone in it's metallic voice, as another blaster bit flew to side of the brunette, mimicking her every move, as if it was ballet. The cartridges started to be loaded in. First the rest that was on the magazine, then another full one, plus some more from a third. Her Barrier Jacket began to change color, from it's blueish white, to a crimson red, as the blood that started to flow endlessly from several unseen cuts on her body, that were created by the enourmous amount of magical energy being forcefully drained from her body, stained her costume from inside out.

Someone came on her side, and lifted her device, but she didn't let go of the handle. The woman said something to her, but nothing was registered in her mind. She could see her pink hair, but she didn't care about her. She didn't care about the others anymore. She didn't care about herself. If she could only destroy the source of her pain, she could die and get together with her daughter in the underworld. She could be set free from this world of pain.

She swinged hard her device, throwing the Belkan Knight away from her in the direction of the others. She pointed to them one more time, and the blaster bits flew in a array around her target.

* * *

The raindrops falling hard against her Knight's Garb weren't enough to enshroud the cry of the brunette that came to her ears. Signum was flying fast, in the direction of the group when she realized that the Ace of the Sky was charging an attack against Hayate and the Wolkenritter. The fire and smoke on the the far side of the base, even in the falling rain, could be seen. The Belkan Knight knew at that moment, that something was more wrong than what she was expecting. She got close enough to Nanoha and with her bare hand, got hold of her staff, lifting it up, but couldn't take the instrument from her hands. "What do you think you are doing, Nanoha?" The magical energy around the handle of the staff sent to Signum's hand, arm and body an incredible magical shock. It seemed like it was going to tear apart her spirit from her body, or at least her arm, so she had to let loose her grip on it.

Dark blue eyes locked with unemotional slate blue ones. "Nanoha, why are you attacking?" The woman didn't answer and with a grunt waved her staff to attack the Knight. Signum easily blocked the blow with Laevatien's sheath, but the power behind it sent her flying down, getting in between her friends and the woman.

* * *

"Come on, I know you are not like this." Hayate stirred, not caring for the words that were being said to her. In that moment, she couldn't care less.

"Says who?"

"Says me." The voice answered. "I know you. Better than anyone else. Better than yourself." The short haired girl looked around her, not seeing anything or anyone. It was just a black void.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"You know who I am. I don't need to answer that. Right now, you need to get back to your usual self. You need to be calm and focus yourself. You have a friend to understand."

"I don't know who you are. Show yourself." Hayate said, turning around again and again, trying to see where it was coming from.

"You're still saying that?" The voice seemed hurt, and strangely sent a pang of pain in Hayate's chest.

_"What was that?"_ She thought.

"See?" The voice came again, mellodic. "Maybe you don't know, but your heart knows."

"You can read my toughts?"

"As much as I would like to continue this, now is not the time, Hayate-chan. You have too much going on around you at the moment for us to sit down and chat. Go back to yourself. Go back to your friends. Go back."

The darkness void seemed to get even darker, more repressing until it consumed her completely.

"..."

"...an..."

"...-chan!"

"Hayate-chan!"

The brown haired snapped her eyes open at once. She saw the tears in the Lady of the Lakes eyes falling on her, and the smile that came to her face almost at the same time. "I'm okay, Shamal." She looked to her front and saw the back of the leader of the Wolkenritter, and little ways more distant, she saw her friend. "Nanoha-chan..." She shouted but realized instantly that she was about to be attacked again. Her tought process seemed to enter in a adrenaline rush, as every possibility and every strategy started to flood her mind. She looked at every one of her knights. Reinforce was little ways from her side, Vita was battered on the floor in front of her, Shamal was hugging her from behind, Signum floated in front of her and Zafira was behind Shamal. The other three Long Arch cast where unconcious in the hall. "Rein!"

"Yes!" The silverhaired device answered almost instantly.

"Unison, now, with Shamal." The device was stupefied. They had never performed a unison together, so it was rather difficult to know what would happen.

But she trusted her mistress so she flew to the side of the doctor and called. "Unison... in."

Shamal's body struggled for a moment, as the amount of magical energy gathered on herself started to overwhelm her. Her hair changed slightly to a silvered yellow, and her clothes to a light green. Hayate saw them finish the unison, then started to command them mentally. _"Shamal, Rein. Create a barrier around us. Signum, get out of the line of fire. Strike her from the side when the attack receeds. Zafira, create a second barrier."_ Every single one of them started to do what their mistress said, as she herself got a hold of Vita and pulled her back.

"Starlight Breaker!" Nanoha called and five rays of pink energy coming from the tip of her staff plus the four blaster bits started to pummel the forcefield. Just the magical shockwave forced Signum to create a shield to protect herself. The sizzling between the pink energy and the light green barrier seemed endless to them. Then it stopped abruptly.

A green energy bind had appeared around the Ace.

"I don't know what the hell is happening, but I'll want all the details later." The voice was heard by them, before the body of the blonde haired young man appeared. "What are you doing, Nanoha?" When nothing came from the said girl, he tried again. "Nanoha, why are you attacking Hayate and her knights?"

"She doesn't answer us, Yuuno-kun." Hayate said. "From what she said until now, she thinks I want to kill her." The boy looked at her dumbfounded.

"And it doesn't help that the dormitory was destroyed with Vivio still inside." Shamal said, with a grim look on her face, while she used that moment to cast a heal spell on the redhaired.

"Wait, Teana didn't got Vivio?" Hayate asked her knights, seeing that they didn't answer she continued. "I asked Teana to go get Vivio." She looked at the others again, then called mentally. _"Teana."_ No answer. _"Teana, are you there?"_ Still no answer. The commander was starting to sweat. _"TEANA!"_

_

* * *

_

A/N_: _Honestly, I know that the chapter came out sloppily, but I looked at it again for a few times, and couldn't think of a way to fix it without having to rewrite it all again, so I decided to let this one go.

It has all the main points down, just that they didn't came out exactly as I planned them to be. Sorry. I'll try to make up for it in the next.

Thanks again for Raiser to proofread.

Even if it's crappy this time around, please do review.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions  
**

**Chapter 7 - Escape**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

The blonde appeared floating above Riot six's base as soon as his teleport spell finished doing its work. He took exactly two seconds to process all information in front of him; Nanoha casting a Starlight Breaker with Blaster three activated; Signum creating a shield to defend against the shockwaves; Hayate curling up with a battered Vita on the floor; Shamal, her appearance slightly different, casting a barrier around her and the others; and Zafira growling and creating a barrier with his spikes. Why the hell Nanoha was attacking Hayate he didn't know, but from what Chrono had told him, he could muse a few ideas. So as soon as he was in range, he called "Struggle Bind". At least he managed to stop the attack that Nanoha had already cast on the group.

"Nanoha, why are you attacking Hayate and her knights?" The girl didn't answer. He turned to the others when they voiced a few of the explanations, but he didn't pay much attention. He was more worried with the battered state his childhood friend was in at the moment. Flying to her side he found her completely inert and he could barely feel her magical signature anymore. She had passed out. "This is bad." He laid her on the floor and started casting healing spells on her.

"What the hell happened here?" He asked at the others when he finished, reinforcing the binds as well. He knew his friend was too tired to try anything else, but better safe than sorry. He looked at her friends, who didn't respond and were all looking at Hayate, and the said one was looking to her right. He trailed her line of vision. The dorms.

* * *

Funny, the girl mused, how much more can happen in the space of sixty minutes? About an hour ago, she was sitting in the lounge of base, with her Vice-Captain at her side, ushering her to read a few books and explaining things about field command. Through that hour, she was briefed in a mission she wouldn't participate, sent to her quarters with orders to stay there, caught up in the middle of a terrorist alert and now she was under two tons of concrete and metal. Now the pain in her chest didn't even bothered her anymore. What bothered her is that the pain was all over her body.

_"Teana."_ She heard her commander call to her.

"I'm here." She answered, talking in a low voice.

_"Teana!" _Again, the same calling.

"Commander Yagami, we're here." She answered again at the voice.

_"TEANA!"_ Only at this moment her brain processed the information better. She was being called through the mental link and not with her voice.

_"I'm here_." She answered mentally this time. She couldn't see anything around her. She was completely in the darkness. "Cross Mirage."

"Yes?" The device answered.

"Flare signal."

"Unable to comply. All process capability is being used to maintain the barrier." Cross Mirage's metallic voice stated.

_"I'm trapped inside the dorm."_ She sent mentally to Hayate. _"I don't know what happened, but I can't see anything here. Cross Mirage's functions are all being redirected to maintain the barrier."_

_"We'll be right there."_

_"Okay."_ Teana looked around herself, but she didn't see a single light source. Feeling her way through the floor she felt the body of someone, and after further touching she recognized being the body of the housemaid. "Aina-san." She sighed in relief, after making sure she wasn't bleeding and was still alive. She continued to feel her way around till she felt the body of the little girl. She was okay too. "Vivio." Teana sighed in relief, wincing again for the first time to the familiar throb on her chest.

* * *

"She's under the rubble." Hayate announced to the others. "Yuuno-kun, Signum, can you look for them there?"

Signum darted in the direction at once, while Yuuno carried the Ace of the Sky to the others. "Shamal-san, can you take a look at her? She's immobilized, and I can barely feel her linker core." The Lady of the Lakes nodded at him and he flew away.

_"Teana."_ Signum asked, mentally. _"I can't pinpoint you position."_

_"Let me."_ Yuuno barged in the conversation. Feeling the magical waves in the area. "Found them." He started to fly in the direction where he felt them more strongly. "Here." He pointed to a semi-intact wall that had fallen. After circling it they found that Teana's barrier was keeping it from falling completely. From the scene, he guessed that Teana had grabbed the other two and jumped out the window.

"Teana." Signum called for the orangehaired girl. The girl moved her head in her direction. Signum got near them and supported the weight of the wall with her hands. "Now get out of there."

The girl looked around, not seeing a single flash of light anywhere. "From where?"

The Knight was puzzled for a moment before looking better at the girl. If she wasn't already used to hundreds of years of battles she could had lost her nerve in that moment. "Yuuno, help her. Please."

Feeling the hint of distress on the other's tone, he flew near the trio and caught Vivio. "Teana, get Aina-san and..." He trailed off when he saw the girls face turning to him. "Damn it." He cursed. "Stay there. I'll be right back." After putting the little girl out of the range of the debris and making sure she was only unconcious, he flew back. "Here." He said pulling the girls arm around his shoulders.

The girl didn't recognize the voice of the man who was now supporting her. "Who're you?"

Yuuno looked at her, grimaced at the sight, then answered. "My name is Yuuno Scrya. I'm the Head Librarian of the Infinity Library and a childhood friend of Nanoha, Fate and Hayate." He shifted her weight again for better support her. "Let's go."

They started to walk in some direction, but all the girl could see was darkness. By now she was frantic. Why couldn't she see any light when she felt that the two of them were near her? There couldn't be so many debris there, could it? He seemed to be able to see her just fine, but why couldn't she? "Don't tell me..." She trailed off when realization came to her. She reached for her eyes with her left hand, but Yuuno grabbed her by the wrist before she touched them.

"Don't. It could only worsen your situation." He said in a wary tone.

"I'm... I'm blind?" Was the obvious conclusion that came to the girl.

* * *

"How is she?" Hayate asked after they had all regrouped. "Is she okay?"

"Well, it's hard to tell." The Lady of the Lakes started. "She's unconcious now, but several glass shards pierced her eyelids. I need to go get my equipment to examine her before I can get any definite conclusions."

"I hate to be the carrier of more bad news." Yuuno cut their conversation. "But we need to get out of here." He said, pointing to the reforming barrier around the base. "Before they finish that."

Hayate looked at the barrier forming and frowned. "Not now."

"Shamal-san, help me cast a teleport spell to tranfer all of us before they finish it." The librarian began to concentrate.

"But..."

"We don't have time. Once we get to the Saint Church we can do more. For now, let's get out of here."

Shamal nodded, uneasy. "Okay."

After a few more moments, they disappeared from that place.

* * *

"Nanoha! Vivio!" The redeyed blonde ran to her friend and surrogate daughter as soon as they appeared on the Saint Church's courtyard.

"They are okay." Shamal was quick to inform. "Only unconcious."

"What happened?" She looked at the others. "Why is Teana..." She trailed off when she saw that the girl was wearing a bandage over her eyes and it was dampened with blood.

"She's okay too." Yuuno informed. "I had to put her to sleep because we didn't had any painkillers with us."

Fate reached for her comn. "Chrono. We have more injured here. Think the infirmary can handle them?"

The Admiral appeared on another screen in front of the blonde. "Locking coordinates. We'll transport them right away." Then he turned to the commander. "Hayate, what happened there? Why's Nanoha so battered?"

"I... I don't know. She came back and started to attack us." A lump came to her throat. "She said that I wanted to kill her."

"First, calm down." Chrono frowned. "As soon as we finish transporting the wounded, I'll fetch the rest of you."

"Okay, thanks, Chrono-kun."

"Hayate." The blonde Knight came rushing to the courtyard.

"Carim. What happened?"

"I'll tell what I know later." She looked at the Admiral on the screen. "Admiral Chrono, do you have accomodations for all of us? I think it would be better if everything is laid out in the open at the same time, but we can't trust the communication links anymore."

"Just give a few more minutes." He answered.

* * *

The TSAB had some rules that everyone should abide by at all times. One of this rules stated that all planets in the Admistered Zone could act freely within it's own rights, as long as it didn't conflict with the rights of other planets, being them members of the Administered Zone or not. To ensure that those rules would be applied at all times, each ship of the TSAB fleet would abide by a similar rule: each ship would be considered a planet in it's own. That's why an Admiral was considered almost the regent of a planet in terms of political power, his ship being his regency. That way they could interact with member planets with more than simple promises of taking their requests to the central. They could actually decide things on the spot and those decisions would have value in all the TSAB's Administered Zone. Of course, that was another of the reasons that the position of Admiral was the most sought out in the military. They were effectively the sheriffs of the dimensions.

On one of these ships, a very important meeting was being held. This meeting could decide the destiny of all dimensions.

Inside the Claudia, Subaru, Erio, Caro, Vita and Teana were in the infirmary with Zafira guarding them. Nanoha was put into intensive care, while Vivio, Shari, Lucino and Alto were in another room, resting, with Vice on the lookout for them.

Inside the briefing room of the ship, the meeting was taking place.

"I was snooping around old archives in the central today, looking for more information about the Three Admirals." Verossa started. "Something to incriminate them." At this all the other that were on the briefing room had mixed reactions. Hayate, Fate, Carim and Chrono in undestanding and Signum, Shamal, Yuuno, Arf and Reinforce in disbelief. Seeing the reaction of the others, the green haired man turned to the the ones already on par with the facts. "I think it's better if we laid out all the facts to them too, don't you think?"

Hayate grimmaced, while Chrono frowned. "There's nothing much we can do now. It's better if everyone is on par with the whole situation." The admiral said.

"Guys, Verossa found some information at the end of the JS Incident, that pointed him into a investigation. He collected some evidences that, well, indicated that Nanoha-chan is Vivio's mother." Hayate took a deep breath. "Not her adoptive mother, but her real mother. The evidence says that Vivio was born to Nanoha-chan."

"But... Vivio's a clone. There's no way that..." The librarian started then trailed off when he looked at the Admiral. "So that's why you wanted to know more about clones, right?"

"Yeah." The Admiral replied simply. "But now it's not just a political matter anymore. This can be considered another major incident."

"Six years ago, when Vita and her team were on a mission, " Hayate started, handing the papers that were in front of her to the others in the room. "Nanoha-chan was attacked by some of Scaglietti's earliest creations. These documents point out that, among other things, Nanoha-chan was inseminated with a embryo, that the Three Admirals along with General Gaiz tried to cover it up, and that the baby Nanoha-chan had later was sent to an orphanage. The earlier Scaglietti's Numbers retrieved the baby and that baby was Vivio." After a few chatter and some question being made, Hayate cleared her throat to get everyone attention. "I know that you all still have some questions about this, and I too have some, but let's finish here first. After this we'll work the details." Seeing that the others silenced she nodded to Verossa to continue.

"I was at the central, but it turns out that I'm not as good to cover my tracks as I am to uncover them." He grinned, trying to lighten up the mood a little. "The Three discovered that I had got some of these" He said pointing to the reports "and issued an order to arrest all of us, but since Carim and I are from the Belka Kingdom, and she a member of the board of directors, they couldn't get to us directly, so they targeted you guys. Riot six's Frontline team, along with Hayate and Reinforce are being considered criminals, terrorists."

Hayate wondered what was the public view on this, since Riot Six was publicly known to be the place where all the three Aces were stationed and was responsible for the resolution of the JS Incident.

"At this very moment, they are bombing the press with facts and misinformations to put public pressure against Riot six." He sighed. "Once I found out about the orders, I sent the message to you, but I guess I was late in that too." Verossa grimmaced.

A silence downed in the room, uncomfortable and heavy. They looked at each other in the room, digesting the information. After a few moments, Chrono continued. "I looked through the official orders, and they were issued directly by General Kill, to arrest all the frontline team from Riot six plus Hayate and Reinforce." He leaned back on his chair. "But there's one thing that was strange in the orders." He flicked his wrist and a window appeared in front of each person in the room. "Nanoha was an exception. It says here that she would take part in the arrest mission."

"Nanoha-chan... She appeared back on the base and started to attack us." Hayate felt again the lump on her throat. "The way she was acting, was like..." She trailled off, but picked up again after a few moments. "...like I wanted to kill her all this time. It came out of nowhere. I was so shocked that I simply stood there."

"Just like this? She didn't say anything else?" Chrono asked.

"No. She attacked saying that I should pay for my crimes and that she knew that the guardians of the Book of Darkness couldn't go against their master."

"Was she thinking that she was back at the Book of Darkness incident?" The Admiral further inquired.

Hayate shook her head. "I don't think so. She knew about Riot 6, and knew about her daughter."

"Wait." Yuuno, pointing to one of the reports, said. "They issued subliminal messages to her during her rehabilitation?" Seeing the others nod, he continued. "Maybe they input some kind of program inside the message, something to be activated later, if needed."

"Can't we undo the subliminal programming?" Carim asked.

"Well. I think it's possible, but..." He sighed. "I have no idea what'll happen with her if we do that. It can destroy all her memories past that point, or, if they put some kind of failsafe in the program and we hit it, worse things can happen." After a few moments. "I think that the only thing we can do now is insert another program to override the former."

"Yuuno, you're talking like she's some kind of computer." Arf said, grimmacing.

"I hate to be the carrier of even more bad news, but..." Chrono looked at Carim, then at Yuuno. "We don't have time to do that. This subliminal programming was done over the course of months, and we don't have all this time to figure something out."

Fate leaned her head down. "I think we should just tell her everything. Without Hayate." She sighed. "I'll tell her myself."

"I'll go with you." Arf intervened. "We don't know what else happened. Maybe she'll attack you too."

"In that case, I think the best would be best if someone totally unrelated to her to tell her the news." Yuuno input. "It's unlikely that she'll attack someone that they wouldn't think as a threat."

Everyone in the room pondered for a few more moments, then Chrono voiced his opinion. "I believe that would be the best course of action in Nanoha's case." He sighed. "Now what will we do about the accusations?"

"Chrono, I'm sorry, but right now I can't really think of anything else." Fate said getting up from her seat, being followed by Hayate and Arf.

"Alright." He grimaced. "Hayate, sorry to say this only now, but I'll need to drop off your team back on ground. I don't have the accomodations here on the ship for all of them."

"Okay." She nodded, not really thinking about what the Admiral had just said.

* * *

There's something in the collective imaginary about a robot. People tend to think that they are sentient beings, that they have conscience of their own, that they can be equal to humans in everything. That, of course, isn't true. A robot can't go against what their artificial inteligence tell them to do, they can't act in completely random ways, as a person would if she wanted. That's one of the most frustrating things in the science. A robot. The closest thing the science could create was the cyborg, human bodies enhanced with technological limbs. Sometimes a whole body, sometimes only a few parts. But be it the whole or just a few parts, one thing it's always the same. The brain. The center of inteligence. Where every thought and every memory is stored. That's why a cyborg can't be considered a real robot. They are human, they are sentient beings, they have emotions.

That was something that was taught to Subaru when she was a child by her mother. She didn't need to feel like she was diferent. She was exactly like any other girl in her school, she had just been born in a slightly different way and had a slightly different body, but she was human. That's why tears started to form on her eyes when she came to and saw her best friend lying in the stretcher next to hers. The girl's body was covered with a sheet, but her head was all bandaged and even her eyes were patched up. Her arm and shoulder had even more bandages, some of them already being tainted with a scarlet tone to them. Her arm was connected to an IV.

"Tea..." She called weakly, almost a whisper. She moved to sit herself in her stretcher to look better at her orange haired friend. "Tea..." She said a little louder, as the tears started to roll down her cheeks. "Tea." Again, louder this time, but the sobbing didn't let her continue.

"Shut up, Subaru." The girl answered, to Subaru's dismay. "Stop crying. I'm trying to get some sleep here." She hissed.

"TEA!" Subaru jumped from her stretcher, latching on top of the other. "TEA! TEA! TEA!" Tears wetting the sheet that covered the gunslinger.

The girl winced instantly. "Subaru! Stop that!" She would have smacked the girl for doing that if she could.

"But, but, but..."

"Just let me be alone, could you?"

"But, Tea..." The girl whined one more time.

The gunslinger turned her head to the cyborg. "I'm okay. I just need a little rest."

* * *

"Hi." The blonde greeted the doctor of the ship as soon as she gained access to the infirmary. "How is she?"

"She's okay now. This was one of the worse cases of linker core drain I have ever seen." The man got up from his seat, turning to the female visiter. "Not to mention the number of small cuts she got all over her body." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Most of them were already healed when we started to work on her. Right now, she's just sleeping."

"Thanks for your hard work." Fate bowed to the man, who was leaving the room, before looking at her friend lying down on the stretcher. "Sorry... I should have predicted that they would do something like this..." She took the unconscious girl hand on hers and put her forehead on the back of her hand, closing her eyes. "If only... If only I had done something earlier... Maybe if I had told you earlier... This wouldn't have happened..."

"I doubt that." The clear male's voice made the blonde snap her eyes open, while turning her head to it's direction. "You didn't know what Scaglietti was about to do, nor that the Three Admirals would do something like this." He grimaced then softenet his gaze. "I got to know it only a few minutes before it actually happened too, and I'm an Admiral." Chrono walked in the direction of the stretcher, looking down at the girl peacefully sleeping. "You don't have to blame yourself for something completely out of your control."

"Even so..." Fate still tried. "I should have known... I should've doubted..."

"In the state you were, I doubt that any person would have thought better." He turned to the blonde. "It still a wonder that you managed to uncover that information about Scaglietti." He patted her head.

Fate sighed. "But now Nanoha is..."

"Fate, she's okay." It was the Admiral's turn to sigh. "The doctor said that she's only sleeping." He turned to the sleeping girl again. "I just can't imagine how she'll react tomorrow, when we tell her the truth about Vivio."

"I'll be by her side." Fate looked to her friend lying figure again. "No matter what she decides to do, I'll be with her all the way."

Chrono stayed silent a few moments, looking at her, then turned again to his stepsister. "Okay. But now, I think the best is for you to go get some sleep. I already prepared a room for you." He ushered her to get up, which she relutanctly obeyed. "It's a little cramped, sorry, but it'll have to do for now."

"It's okay. I don't mind." Fate said before turning off the lights in the room, then she turned to her friend again. "Good night, Nanoha." She said before closing the door.

Few moments later, slate blue eyes snapped open, and turned to the now closed door.

* * *

A/N: Teana is turning out to be the sandbag of this fic. Poor thing. Anyway, review it please.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 8 - Revelation**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

Her eyes scanned the darkness in the room, seeing the glimmer of little lights around her. She tried to took in to her surroundings, but aside from the lights she couldn't see anything else. Her body felt sore, and her limbs were aching. Her head was spinning and she felt the strong urge to puke. It didn't help that the smell of the room was a mixture of mechanical oil and medicinal alcohol. She tryed to sit up but realized that she couldn't do it, as if her muscles didn't respond the brain's orders to move. Her memory was scrambled, but she realized that she was probably on a stretcher inside of a ship. The smell was something she got used to through the years. Still, how did she ended up inside a battleship? Fishing through her recent memory, her heart started to beat faster, as a correspondent beep sound also accelerated. The only memory that came back to her was of pink explosion and her daughters name. Her breath started to get ragged, and her eyes moist, when she remembered what happened.

The light in the room was suddenly turned on, and she went momentarily blind from it. She saw people's faces that she didn't recognize starting to fuss over her, but she didn't care. They checked her briefly (or did it take a long time?) before only a man was left standing inside the room, beside her. He asked her something that she didn't heard. Didn't want to hear.

But he pressed on, until she finally heard him. "Takamachi-san? Can you hear me?"

Feeling her mouth dry, and a sob coming on her throat, she tried to answer. "Yes." A monosyllabic answer, but it was all she could manage at the moment.

"How are you feeling? Any pain or malaise?"

"No." She lied. She didn't want to continue that pointless conversation. In that moment she only hoped that her pain was something that would take her to her daughter.

He smiled knowingly. "Just take a rest for now, okay? Don't try to overexert yourself. Do you think you can sleep again?"

"Yes."

He looked at her face a moment before getting up and going to a cabinet near the door. "You don't need to lie to me, Takamachi-san." He said walking back. "Here." He offered a capsule to her along with a cup of water. "It's a painkiller. I can't let anyone else see the Ace of Aces in this state, can I?"

She didn't care to be the Ace of Aces anymore. She didn't care about all the titles she received through the years. The Ace of Aces, the Ace of the Sky, Supreme Aggressor, and so on. They mean anything to her if she couldn't have her daughter with her anymore.

Seeing that she wouldn't answer his question, and didn't make a move to take the pill he offered, he continued. "You'll feel better after a good night's rest." He turned to the cabinet again, getting some kind of tool from it. "I don't like to use this kind of thing, but..." He turned on the equipment and waved it's green light over her eyes for a few seconds, until he heard her snoring.

The doctor sighed heavily, turned to the door again and put the things back in the cabinet before leaving the room again.

* * *

He shook his head, trying to relieve some of the drowsiness that was overcoming him. Being out of the field for so long was starting to take its toll on him. When he was still an Enforcer, he could go for almost a week without sleeping, but now, just one night was almost knocking him out. Reviewing the case files and reports again, he issued the order for the Enforcers stationed in his ship to report directly to the Saint Church when they finished their missions, until further notice.

"Okay, now I can concentrate on this." He voiced his thoughts, trying hard to concentrate on the reports and orders that were coming from the Central. But as luck would have it, someone entered the room in that moment.

"I was wondering..." The brown haired woman said. "...will we tell everything to Nanoha-chan before or after we land?"

He simply continued to read the reports without meeting her gaze. "Either is fine, I think. It's not like she'll blow the ship to smithereness with herself on board." Actually Chrono was more concerned with the woman standing in the room with him. "You seem to be taking this pretty lightly for someone on the other end of her fury outbreak."

Hayate sat on the chair across from his table and sighed. "I'm not really. She's my friend, best friend, and I believe her. I have to act normal around her, so I need to get myself together. She wasn't attacking me on purpose."

"Though we don't know yet what really happened with her in that island."

"Yeah." The Ace of the Ground slumped on the chair, closing her eyes. "I'm tired."

"Me too." He answered instantly. "I'm receiving orders to arrest all of you. Thank god that this is being only sent direct to me and not to everyone on the ship."

"Yes."

"Well, take a look at this." He summoned another screen, beside his table. In the screen appeared a television program, a recorded airing of the local news.

"_...Yagami Hayate, Fate T. Harlaown and Takamachi Nanoha. The three Aces were stationed in the recently created and already famous Mobile Division Lost Property Riot Force six. The Riot six was a central piece in orchestrating the downfall of the interdimensional criminal Jail Scaglietti..._"

"So far so good right?" Chrono said.

"_...but according to the information we received from an unknown source, the real reason the Riot six was behind his arrest was because they were working together with Scaglietti and he threatened to reveal this information publicly..._"

"Now things will start to get ugly." The Admiral continued.

"_From the information we received, Yagami Hayate orchestrated the whole event, being helped by Fate T. Harlaown and various of their subbordinates. Riot six operated normally, equal to any of the TSAB's divisions." _The image switched to a mozaich, outlining a person._ "We interviewed one of the Privates that were stationed in Riot six. His asked not to be identified, because of the military secrecy, but agreed to the interview._"

"_Did you find any strange events happening within the base during your stay with them?_" The reporter asked.

"_No._" The person's voice muffled and almost inaudible, but there was a subtitle on the image. "_Everything occured normally, aside from a few explosions that we heard in the training area, but that too was supposedly normal since the three Aces trained there._"

"_So you can say that everything there was normal?_"

"_Yes. I can't even believe that something like this is happening. I never once doubted our commander and our objectives._"

"What do you think so far?" Chrono said after pausing the video.

"This seems good for us." Hayate answered. "Nothing to worry about, and the mechanic is shedding good light to us."

"It would be if this wasn't a manipulative press." Chrono continued the video.

The image changed again for the reporter. "_As you can see, none of the lower ranks or backyards staff of the base were aware of the fact that they were working for terrorists._"

"What?"

The image cut back to the studio, with the presenter. "_With us in the studio is Doctor Hans Klautzberg, private investigator and expert in political internal affairs. He's the author of the best seller 'Corruption', were he points out various historic moments where the TSAB was lenient with criminals, and points out that the corruption started within the higher ranks in society, including the TSAB._" She turned to her guest. "_Good evening, Doctor._"

The man politely bows. "_Good evening._"

"_Can you describe how you see the recent events regarding the Riot six?_"

"_In only one word, predictable._" The man stated flatly.

"_Care to elaborate more for us your point of view?_"

"_It's simple. Who are the people that make that unit? Let's start with the commander, Yagami Hayate. She's the same of the Book of Darkness Incident, where countless TSAB members were attacked and almost died when they had their linker cores forcefully extracted from their bodies. Various of those members had to retire immediately after the incident because of this, losing their pride as mages. She's helped by none other than the Wolkenritter, her own special unit, that are nothing more than programs created by the Book of Darkness itself._" He fumbled across the table with some of his papers then started to read one of them. "_According to what its publibly known, the programs can't exist without the Book of Darkness, but they are all right here, very much alive, even after the Book was destroyed. How's that possible?_"

"_I don't know._" The presenter shrugged "_How? How's something like that possible?_"

"She's acting. Anyone can see that this is staged_._" If Hayate were holding anything in her hands, it would had been tossed at the holoscreen.

"_Simple. The Book of Darkness wasn't destroyed as the facts were said. She must still have the book with her._"

"_I see._" The woman nodded in understanding.

"_Continuing. The next would be Fate Testarossa Harlaown. This one is even simpler. She's a clone. A deject created by the unfinished and untested Project Fate. Her memories are not even hers, for pete's sake. People may see her as a victim in a tragedy, where her mother staged as the villain, and I have to admit that even I felt sorry for her, but after analyzing her actions for the past years, I came to the conclusion that she too is another degenerate. She's been using her missions with full authority from the TSAB to recruit potentially powerfull mages in the future. She did this with the two she brought to Riot six, under the pretense that she was their guardian, but in fact she wanted them to receive training for their purposes. Caro Ru Lushe, the summoner, was a child abandoned by her tribe and bounced from one TSAB unit to another until she was recruited by Fate. She probably wants revenge on her tribe and those units for treating her poorly. Erio Maondial is another defect child from the Project F, that was sent from one rehabilitation unit to another until Fate recruited him. His motive is simple revenge too._"

"That's not true." The Commander yelled at the man talking in the screen.

"_These two. Subaru Nakajima and Teana Lanstar. Let's begin with Teana. She was raised by her brother, because her parents died a little over a year after she was born. The details of the accident that took the lives of her parents are still unclear to this day, because there was some part of the TSAB involved in the matter, during a secret mission. Her brother, years later, was assassinated during a mission when he was already part of the TSAB. Her brother, Tiida Lanstar, was probably trying to uncover the facts about their parents deaths, but since he was killed, she decided to finish the job._"

"_I see, I see._"

"_The fact that Subaru Nakajima was there strange for me at first. She doesn't have anything against the TSAB, aside from the fact that her mother was killed in a similar way to Teana, and the Ground Forces never intended to reveal the truth behind her death. She should be satisfied now that she discovered the truth and that her mother was a hero in those days. So, what could change the heart of such a child? Simple. She's a combat cyborg. The same type of cyborg that are being kept in custody in the Maritime Detention Facility. She can be reprogramed to obey their commands without question._"

"Are these guys stupid?" Another male voice was heard in the room, startling both Chrono and Hayate. "She's a cyborg, not a robot. She have a human brain, not a computer in her head."

Chrono cleared his throat, before pausing the video again. "Can I ask you what are you doing here, Ferret?"

"Same thing as you guys. Watching the video." Yuuno shrugged.

"Since when? I didn't see when you entered." Hayate turned to him.

"I knocked but you guys didn't answer. When I entered the room, you were so absorbed in the video that you didn't even notice me." He sat back on one of the couches. "Please continue the video."

Chrono rubbed his temples before complying. He made a mental note to lock his door from now on.

"_But the way they rounded up all these cohorts with the TSAB's approval is still eluding me. Do you have a theory on it, Doctor?_" The woman inquired.

"_In a ingenious and well played chess move, the Commander of the unit, Yagami Hayate, helped by Fate Testarossa Harlaown, managed to work together and rank up in popularity with the masses and in turn gain prestige within the TSAB, even with the Three Great Admirals. The two of them used their privileges to create this unit and recruit even the top instructor of the TSAB Air Forces, Captain Takamachi Nanoha. Both Fate and Hayate were the first cases where the Ace of Aces worked, when she was still a civilian colaborator. Having the best intructor on their unit ensured that theirs recruits would grow rapidly in terms of strength and magical skill. That was their true objective in rounding up Captain Takamachi for their ranks._"

"How much misinformation was fed to this guy?" Yuuno asked.

"I don't think that it was just misinformation. They distorted the facts." Chrono continued, after pausing the video again. "From here on gets even worse. This guy has some serious issues with the TSAB and Riot Six."

"I guess there's no need for us to watch anymore." Hayate sighed and leaned back against her chair again.

"I'm going to the bridge now." Chrono said getting up from his seat. "Hayate, go have some sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day. You too, Yuuno."

"I'll finish watching this, if you don't mind." The librarian said.

"Take it to your room then." Chrono typed a few times in his keyboard, sending Yuuno a copy of the video. "If you don't this lady here isn't going to sleep either."

Hayate pouted. "Mou. Stop treating me like a kid."

* * *

The scenery was incredibly soothing to her eyes, as she saw the greenary going over the plain that was turned into a flower field. Her daughter was playing around with some of her friends, while she sat by the shadow of a tree nearby. The girl smiled happily every now and then at her, before turning herself again to run in another direction, her blonde hair almost blending with the yellow of the blooming flowers. The little girl giggled happily as another pause was made.

She leaned against the tree to watch that calming scene. It were moments like those that made her happy to be a mother. She closed her eyes, humming happily as she took in the scent of the flowers that permeated the surroundings. She opened her eyes again and looked at the sky where ominous clouds were starting to gather announcing the rain that would fall in a few minutes. She turned to the flower field to call her daughter, but she didn't find her. She got up and skimmed through it, the girl was nowhere. She called for her name, but no response came. She ran, feeling her breath getting heavier and her steps more slouched, to the last point where she saw her daughter.

There was no sign of her there, nor of any other children. She looked around and the flowers around started to disappear, leaving only a few beds with neatly arranged roads around them. She blinked and looked again, walking in the direction of one of the flower beds. There was a carved rock in the middle of it. It's shapes too sharp to be natural. It was a grave. Her daughter's name was writen on it.

"Viviooo!!!" She woked up with a start, screaming, sitting up, while her arm stretched in front of her. She was panting and sweating heavily.

"Mama..." A little girl's voice whined at her side. She turned enough to see the heterochromatic eyes of her daughter moisting with the sudden burst that came from her mother.

"Vivio!" Nanoha jumped from the stretcher, ignoring the wires attached to her body and the pain flags her brain was setting off, knocking the IV and some of the equipment to the ground while she hugged the little girl tightly to her bossom. "Thank god. Thank god. Thank god."

"Mama..." The girl at first began to return the embrace but soon afterwards started to feel the strenght of her mother in her little frame. "Mama. It hurts."

"Nanoha, you're going to sufocatte her." The blonde said from beside them. Nanoha let her little girl a little looser in the hug.

"Sorry, Vivio." After the shock of seeing her daughter alive and well, her gears clicked together again. "But how..."

"Teana." Fate answered simply. "You'll need to thank her later." The blonde got one knee on the floor, to be more on eyelevel. "I won't ask anything right now, okay? Just promise me you'll tell me everything later on. Try to remember everything that happened yesterday, okay?"

Nanoha nodded in the hug with her daughter. "I'll try." She was too happy feeling the girl warmth that she would not even cared if Fate started to question her right then.

"Okay." She said, pulling Vivio from their embrace. "I'll take this little missy here to eat something, since she didn't had breakfast. After she woke up she asked to come directly here." Nanoha nodded at them.

"I'll be right back." The girl smiled happily. "Mama. What do you want to eat?"

"Anything. Mama's starving." She said the last word while imitating a monster voice. That sent Vivio in another giggling fit. When both blondes were about to leave the room Nanoha called for her friend. "Fate-chan."

The taller blonde stopped. "Yes?"

"Did we at least managed to capture Hayate-chan?" The question was made so lightly that Fate stiffened for a second.

The blonde turned to the door again, before answering. "For now, think about what really happened yesterday, okay?"

Nanoha simply nodded as the door was being closed.

* * *

The redhaired Belkan Knight was a person that was looked up to from almost every person she had ever gotten close to. Be it about investigation, battles or a simple talk, people would always find the littel girl to be someone to serve as an example of character. Maybe it was because of her young exterior that people tend to look at her expecting that her mentality matched her looks, but the fact was that she was a formidable person. But she herself had a number of people who she looked up to. Maybe not declared but she respected them. Not counting the members of the Wolkenritter and her master, Hayate, she had something like a role model in the Ace of Aces. She would always, unconciously or not, act in the same way that Nanoha would in almost any given situation. That's why Signum didn't say anything when she found the girl up and about in the corridor, entering one of the rooms of the ship.

The pinkhaired leader walked to the door and watched her family member go about reading some things that were on the screen, while sitting in the couch of the waiting room. "Morning."

Vita looked up. "Signum..." She watched at her a few seconds before resuming her reading.

"Is those the reports from the forwards?"

"Not the official ones. They are still in the infirmary, so I just asked them to tell me what they saw down there and recorded."

"I see." The pink haired sat beside her. "Anything useful?"

"Not really. Just something that's bothering me since I saw them this morning."

"What would that be?"

Vita slumped back on the couch. "They never got so badly injured before while battling drones only. Sure, during the final battle against the Numbers they got it really bad, but the way they were this morning seemed like they had battled against all the Numbers without backup."

"Could the drones be stronger then?" Signum asked, concern apparent in her voice, even if her on face continued the ever present stoic expression.

"No. From what they told me, the drones they battled were normal."

"Overwhelming in number, maybe?" The older knight tried again.

"It's not that either. They said that their most serious injuries came from friendly fire or badly defended attacks."

"That's weird."

"Yes. The ammount of training that we put them through everyday shouldn't..." The little one's eyes flickered and widened as the idea formed in her head. She fisted her hand, and punched her own knee before getting up and started walking in the direction of the door while cursing.

* * *

Some people say that when you hear something completely unbelievable, the first reaction a person can have is deny it promptly. Dismiss it like it's some kind of balooney the others are trying to pull. Even if you are presented with irrefutable proof that it's the truth, you simply can't aknowlowdge it. It doesn't matter if the answer is obvious. Even if the answer to the question is perfectly clear, the brain can't accompany it, and shuts itself, denieing the mind of the complete information. Others say that the first reaction is completely up to the personality of the person. They can dismiss it, acknowledge it or start to doubt the information. Nowadays, people still discuss this type of reaction. Researchers claim results on one front where others claim other ideas. The truth is, no one really knows what happens inside the mind of a person in that situation.

That's why no one could really predict what was about to happen inside that briefing room. And that made the ones outside feel uneasy. A few of them didn't know exactly why, but they could see the faces of the others. Everyone was nervous, and that feeling passed from one person to the other. Hayate along with the Forwards were in another room. The rest of the Long Arch staff was teleported back to the ground the night before. Now was a question of time. The rest of the Wolkenritter were scattered about through the ship, each doing something different. They wanted to be there, but were convinced that it would be better to be away for the moment.

Inside the room, a brunette was sitting on a central chair, reading a few documents that were handed to her. She couldn't believe the story that was being told in those reports. It is often said that a great shock can make a person's thought process stop, but that was hardly true. Normally the mind of the person would be raging with thoughts, so much that the brain simply can't register them all, and in trying to do it, it slacks in commanding the rest of the body. The person stops, her facial expression disappears, and the person simply stays there with a blank look on her face.

She got up while reading the last few lines. Her mind a wreck. "I..." She started but didn't know what to say to the black haired woman in front of her. On her mind several familiar faces passed, one after the other, some of them were laughing, some crying, some indiferent. She tought about everything that happened to her until that point. It didn't connect. The puzzle seemed off. The story seemed wrong. There was no way that she could believe in such a thing. It couldn't possibly be true.

"Captain Takamachi..." The woman started but the other woman was blank. She couldn't read her expression or body language at all. "I think it's better if you..."

She didn't get time to finish before the brunette tore the papers in her hands. An image in her mind triggered, and the other person in the room saw a magic circle erupt below the Ace. She looked up to the other woman, still expressionless, and said. "Why now?"

"I'm sorry." The woman tried, uneasy. "I don't think I understand what..." Nanoha started to glow in a pink tone. "Calm down, Captain Takamachi." She saw the woman looking to her, dead blue eyes darting around the room, now seeing the hidden protection spells scattered about.

"I'm..." She looked down, concentrating her magical energy even more, to the point where her chair was blown back and collided against a wall. "...calm." She shouted, as the officer was sent back a few more paces, where she was caught by a blonde man.

"Nanoha, calm down." Yuuno said entering the room. After she looked at him he took a tentative step towards her. "Do you remember me?"

"Yuuno-kun..." She looked at him softly at first but her expression changed slowly to glare. "You knew about this too, didn't you?" Another shockwave of pure magical energy. "Didn't you?" She pressed.

"Stop this, Nanoha." He said, casting a barrier around him and the other that was at the door. "You're not like this. Please. Stop it."

The woman's eyes seemed to regain it's brightness in that moment, but her expression continued to show rage. "I'm not like what? Do you think I'm some kind of saint? That if someone slaps me, I'll simply give the other cheek?" She took turned fully towards him. "I'm human too." Another shockwave was felt and alarms went off around the ship.

The woman didn't know exactly what to do. She wasn't used to that feeling. It eat her from the inside, crawling under her skin and sending shivers up her spine. She didn't like to feel that way, that feeling of her blood boiling while her muscles tensed. Her mind suspecting every little thing around her being. She was about to explode when the door opened one more time and another person entered the room.

* * *

A/N: Ever since I saw the Arc~en~ciel destroy the ship Chrono's father was in I've been wondering. Does a Starlight Breaker (or Plasma Zamber Breaker, or Ragnarok) have enough firepower to damage one battleship like the Asura or the Claudia?

Thanks again for F91 for proofreading.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 9 - Acknowledgement**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

Hayate was in a room with the four forwards. She was specially thankful for Teana for saving both Vivio and Aina from the dorm collapse. They still didn't know what would come of the girl, without a proper examination in a eye clinic, but at least she said that it didn't hurt anymore. Shamal was with them, trying her best to do some late healing to, at least, ease their pain. Subaru was practically already completely healed, since her fast metabolism did a good part of the job. Erio was still limping a little, but that was all that he got from it, thankfully. Caro had her arm in a sling, just to be safe, since she didn't break any of her bones and the cuts she had were mostly superficial. The General was resisting the urge to ask again Yuuno or Fate what was happening there. Her fate was riding on the shoulder of her best friend and saviour.

The people waiting in the corridor only heard the soft footsteps of the redeyed blonde woman pacing about. She wanted to be the one to relay the facts to her friend, since it seemed like she wasn't seeing her as an enemy like she saw Hayate, but her stepbrother and Yuuno convinced her to wait outside the briefing room. Or more likely, force her to wait. The silence that came from the room was eerie.

Yuuno was sitting in a chair near the door, one eye keeping tabs on it as the other watched as his childhood friend walked back and forth in front of him. They had faith in her friend. Even if it was something so ludicrous that could leave her scarred for the rest of her life, he believed that she would come to terms with it quickly enough. What he didn't know was what would be her reaction after that. They've being friends for more than half their lives, but her behaviour sometimes still eluded him.

Arf was sitting at his side, appearing bored out of her mind, but in fact she was just as nervous as the rest of them. Ever since Nanoha saved Fate from Precia all those years back, Arf always held Nanoha as her second master, even if it didn't mean much. She wasn't exactly extra loyal to her, compared to the others, but she would always do anything she could for the brunette. On the rare cases when there was some kind of research in the library issued by the Ace of Aces, she would do it relentlessly, without questioning anything. That type of dedication had impressed even Yuuno numerous times in the past.

Vita was leaned against the other side of the door, with her eyes closed, trying to focus all her attention to whatever sound came from inside the room. Her mind wondering about the day before and what happened with her friend during that mission. She wanted to know, more than anything, why she had such a change of heart so suddenly. She was torn. She wanted to be there for her friend, but at the moment, what she was really doing was keeping an eye on her. Signum was on the end of the corridor, with Zafira at her side, watching the events unfold in front of her. They wanted, above all else, to welcome back their friend with open arms.

Chrono was on the bridge of the ship, drumming his fingers on the panel in front of him. He wanted to be with the others in the briefing room, but he was needed in his captain chair at the moment. Even so, he couldn't calm himself down with what could be happening back there. He was watching the corridor in one of his screens, since the amount of protective spells and barriers that Yuuno, Arf and Shamal had set up in the room didn't allow him to watch was happening inside directly.

"Fate-mama..." The little girl appeared in the end of the corridor, unwittingly claiming the attention of everyone nearby. She walked to her blonde guardian and was met halfway.

"What is it?" Fate said, lifting her from the floor.

"Where's Nanoha-mama?" She asked while digging something from her pocket.

"She's in middle of a important meeting now." Fate said, after planting a kiss on the girls forehead and putting her down. "Can you wait a little?"

"Hmn." Vivio nodded.

"Okay, let's wait together then..." Fate said offering her hand to the small heterochromatic eyed girl.

When they turned to walk back to the others, an alarm set off in the ship. Fate took Vivio in her arms again and dashed to the door. When she got to the door she heared Nanoha yelling at Yuuno, but when she was about to enter the door, Vivio beat her to it, opened the door and entered before her.

The little girl saw her mother with the same scary face she remembered her being during the time Vivio was being controlled. "Mama..." She whined softly.

All at once, the brunette's outburst ceased, as she looked at her daughter's scared face. "Vivio..." She said softly, few moments before kneeling down and opening her arms to welcome the hug that was a few steps away. "Come here..."

"Mama. What's happening?" Vivio asked as soon as she was her mother's arms.

Nanoha embraced her daughter strongly, but learning from what happened earlier, she let the hug a little looser in her arms. She leaned down on her little shoulder and started to cry. "I'm sorry, Vivio. I'm sorry..."

Vivio felt her mother's tears starting to wet her neck. "Good girl. Good girl." She said, while patting the older woman's head.

Nanoha couldn't help but smile at her little girl, trying to comfort her, even though she didn't know what her mother was apologizing for. They stayed in that position for moments longer, until Yuuno and Fate got closer to them. Nanoha looked at both their faces, before getting up, taking Vivio in her arms in the process. "I'm sorry, Yuuno-kun. I almost took out on you."

"Don't worry." He smiled. "But..." He changed his expression again, serious. "There's more to that."

"Yuuno." Fate said. "Let's wait a little, okay?"

"What?" The brunette looked at him. "What else can there be?"

"There's more to that, aside from you possibly being Vivio's gestational mother."

"More? Wait, what do you mean gestational mother? What are you guys talking about?" The woman stood on her feet.

The blonde woman walked to Nanoha and took her hand. "Did you do what I asked you this morning? Did you think about what happened yesterday?"

The brunette looked in Fate's eyes, seeing the worry in them, she tried to laugh it off. "Nyahaha. Sorry, Fate-chan. I really didn't."

Fate took a deep breath to steady herself. "What do you think of Hayate? Why did you attacked her?"

"What do you mean?" Nanoha was taken aback by the question. "She's a criminal, right? She always wanted to kill me, right?" She felt her legs tremble, and took a step back, downcasting her head. "She needs to be locked up for life."

Fate took both shoulders of the girl, leaving the little blonde in between them with a surprised look on her little face. "Do you really think that's true?"

"Of course, Fate-chan..." Nanoha tried to take another step back, but Fate's grip didn't let her. "She's evil. A criminal. She's been trying to kill me ever since I, we destroyed the first Reinforce."

"Do you really believe that?" Fate lightly shook the girls shoulders, forcing her too look into her red eyes. "Do you really think Hayate is evil?"

"Do you really think that the kind girl who didn't want her knights to complete the Book of Darkness because it would cause problems to other people is evil?" Yuuno pressed on.

"Didn't the courts already pardoned her crimes?" Fate continued, voice rising a notch.

"Did she ever tried to kill you before?" The librarian echoed.

Nanoha was shocked at what her best friends were saying. "It's obvious..."

"What's obvious? Nanoha, what is it that you really feel about Hayate. Forget your mind, forget your memories, forget your orders. What is it that your heart says about the girl, Yagami Hayate, not the Commander, nor the mistress of the Book of Darkness, but the kind girl who only wanted to live her life with her knights. What is it that you feel about her?" Fate pressed further.

The brunette felt her arms get weaker while Vivio was in her arms, mismatched eyes darting from one face of her mothers to the other. "Mama, are you okay?"

The little question fell deaf on everyone's ears. Nanoha was blank in the face, but Yuuno continued to press on, while Fate took Vivio on her own arms. "Remember Hayate's face, her own self, not what your mind is telling you to think. Think with your heart." The librarian knew it was cruel to the brunette to force these emotions out of her moments after she just learned one truth, but it was best if she acknowledged everything at once, than dealing with several pieces of information at a time.

Nanoha slumped to the ground as soon as she didn't fell her daughter's weight on her arms anymore. Fate walked to the door and handed Vivio to Arf. "Be a good girl, now okay, Vivio? Nanoha-mama, Yuuno and Fate-mama need to talk now." Then turning to her familiar. "Arf, take her to the cafeteria to eat something."

The familiar nodded before turning to the girl. "Let's go get some candy, Vivio." And procceded to almost drag the girl, not waiting for a response.

Fate returned to her friend sitting on the floor. She was voicing softly, more to herself than for the others in the room. "Hayate-chan... Is evil..." She said. "Hayate-chan is a criminal..." She started to tremble. "Hayate...-chan is trying to kill me. I hate... Hayate-chan."

"Nanoha." Fate kneeled in front her, forcing her to meet her gaze again with the calling. "If you really hate Hayate, how can you call her name with so much caring in your voice." The brunette lifted her head, shocked. "What are you really feeling right now, Nanoha? Tell us."

"Fate-chan... I don't know..." Her eyes started to moist. "My mind is telling me one thing, but even if the words come from my own mouth, I can't believe them. Everytime I think of Hayate-chan, those words come together. I don't really hate her. I hate myself for thinking like this about her." A sob came on her throat. "I don't know what to do. I... I... I..."

"Shush... Okay, okay." Fate embraced the crying girl. "We know it's hard, but if you at least know that it isn't true, then the next step will be easier." She said, softly caressing the back of Nanoha's head. She turned to Yuuno, who was watching the whole thing, silently asking for him to continue.

"Nanoha..." He said softly. "Do you remember what happened on that island yesterday?" The crying girl turned to him, but the question didn't seem to register with her, so he waited there a few moments before asking again. "Can you tell us everything that happened yesterday? You don't need to tell the details, just the sequence of events, like you remember them."

The blue eyed girl leaned away from Fate's embrace, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down. "Let's see..." She started to search her memory. "I woke up at the normal time, took a shower, got dressed, waited for Aina-san to get to room, then me and Fate-chan walked to the base." She took a deep breath. "Then Fate-chan kinda dragged me to Shamal..." She let out a small laugh. "Then I went to the training grounds, had lunch with Vivio and the forwards in the mess hall." Then she shook her head. "No. Not like this."

"Not like what?" Fate asked.

"Hayate-chan..." She said cringing her teeth. "...called me." She shook her head again. "Not like this."

"Calm down, okay?" Yuuno knelt beside them and put a hand on her shoulder. "We understand. Move on. What's next?"

"Then Fate-chan called, we had a briefing on possible Scaglietti's failsafe attack, then we got separated, I got to an island..." She shook her head again. "...I called Long Arch..." She leaned down her head again. "The next thing I remember is flying back to the base feeling angry at Hayate-chan..."

"Hmm... I see." Yuuno got up from where he was and ushered the other two to follow him. The three of them sat at a table in the corner of the room. "And after that?"

"I attacked Hayate-chan, saying all those things to her and her knights... Then..." Her chest tightened again, before she remembered that her daughter was okay. "Then I destroyed the dorms... After that everything is a blurr." She finished.

"I see..." Yuuno looked at her for a few more moments before getting up and walking to the door.

"Why, Fate-chan?" The girl continued. "Why am I feeling like this?" Fate said nothing, and just proceeded to stroke the girls head.

"Here." The bespectacled man came back with a bottle of water, offering a cup to the girl.

"Thanks." She took the cup and drank a few sips from it.

After she calmed down more, Yuuno continued. "Did you read in the the reports that during your rehab, they issued subliminal messages, so when you woke up, your mind would take it as everything that happened during your rehab was real, right?" The girl nodded. "I'll need to look into it, once I go back to the library, but I can tell you one thing. What you're going through right now isn't the reality. We believe that something must have happened with you on that island to make you think that Hayate was your enemy. I don't know if it was some kind of brainwash or if the subliminal messages have something to do with it, but..." He fished in his pocket. "You may not remember, but I believe she must have it recorded." He said while holding the small red orb in his hand. "Since long ago, I lost my admistrative powers over it, so can you ask her?"

Nanoha nodded. "Raising Heart."

"Yes, master." The orb blinked.

"Do you have the records of the events that happened yesterday when we got to the island?"

"Yes, master." A few windows popped in front of her. "Input password."

Nanoha looked puzzled. "Who put a password?"

"You did, Master. The events during this mission where all protected by the system."

"That's the problem. I can't override the protection, nor do I have the password. I'm hoping you could." Yuuno input.

Nanoha nodded. "Override password protection." The screen flashed a denied message. "Why?"

"The system was protected against override, Master." The device said, uncaring.

"Isn't there at least a password hint?" The librarian asked.

"Is there, Raising Heart?"

"Yes." In the window appeared a picture of Fate, Hayate, Suzuka, Arisa and Nanoha, in front of their middle school, in their graduation day.

Nanoha felt her blood boil when she looked at Hayate in the picture, but shook her head. "Friends." She tried, but the screen displayed the denied message again. "Graduation." Denied. "School." Denied. "Best friends." They continued to try every possible word that could go with that picture, from the name of the school to a combination of the names of each person in the picture. All were denied.

"Isn't there anything else?"

Nanoha scrambled her memory of that day, but nothing seemed to come to her memory until one fact seemed to spark her mind. "Friendship." She tried.

"Acess granted." The device said, as the image changed to showcase several files.

Fate chuckled at the choosing of password from her friend, a fact that didn't passed unnoticed by Nanoha that looked at her questingly. "Did you see?" Fate said. "Your friends are always in your heart." She smiled gently. "That's something even a brainwash can't take out of you."

Nanoha smiled nervously, then looked at the screen again, still feeling that unpleasant sensation in her mind everytime she saw Hayate in the picture.

Yuuno forciby cleared his throat to get the attention from the other two. "Is there a video or audio?"

Nanoha pressed the buttons to select the files, and an image appeared in the screen. Nanoha landed on the beach then walked to a type of rundown fort, then after jumping over the wall she received a call. Ralgo Kill. They watched as the Ace of Aces in the screen watched a sequence of character run in the holoscreen before started to shake her head violently.

_"It's not like that. It's a lie."_ The image in the screen where the characters had appeared turned back to the General, but she continued to scream to it. _"Why are you saying this. They didn't do anything like that. They're my friends and students. It's a lie. Who are you people to say that my friends did such a thing?"_

_"I see..."_ Ralgo said, appearing troubled. _"But look at this..."_ Again his image disappeared and the sequence began again. The Nanoha on the image started to hold her head with both hands.

_"No. She's not like that. She wouldn't do this. She wouldn't..."_ The girl's body trembled violently, to the point of almost falling to the ground, then she steadied herself.

_"So, Captain Takamachi..."_ Ralgo one more time appeared in the screen, but Nanoha brushed him off and took flight.

The girl sitting between her friends sent a hand to her mouth that was agape. "Wha...What was that? I-I don't remember that." She looked incredulously at herself talking with anger in her voice, before she waved her hand on the screen, stopping the video. "Raising Heart, make a copy of that file and send it to Yuuno-kun."

"Alright, my Master."

"I don't want to see that anymore." She felt the lump in her throat come back.

"Thanks." Yuuno said. He was going to ask for it, but if she sent herself to him then it was better. "I'll try to analyse what's here okay."

"Hmn." The brunette nodded.

"Let's see. What else can we do now." He started to muse then turned to the girl again. "Nanoha, we need you to do one more thing for us, okay?"

"What is it?" She wasn't sure anymore what else could there be.

He flicked his wrist and a screen appeared. "I'll show the photos of almost everyone you have more or less a close relation here on MidChilda, okay? Tell me if you feel anger towards any of them. I don't want you to think with you heart. Just blurt the first thing that comes to the the top of your head. Can you do it?"

"I... I think so." She said, uneasy.

"Don't worry, okay? Let's start with us two." He clicked a few times and a photo of himself appeared.

"Yuuno-kun. What are you thinking?" Nanoha asked, incredulously.

"Good." The librarian ignored the question. "Just continue like this. Say the first thing that came to you."

The next was a photo of Fate. She raised an eyebrow. "Fate-chan?" The librarian smiled. "Is this some sort of a game you're playing?"

"Yes. It's a type of game, but not for fun. You'll understand." He replied. While changing photos, he was, at the same time, rewatching the video Raising Heart had sent him.

Next was a Subaru. "Subaru. Good reflexes and fast learner." Next. "Teana. Sometimes short tempered, specially around Subaru, but great at scene assessment and to lead the forwards." Next. "Caro. Has good potential and is loyal to her precepts. Erio. Will be a great knight in the future if he continue to train." And like this the images continued to display, one after the other, Chrono, Amy, Lindy, Arf, Aina, Vivio, Vita, Signum, Shamal. Everyone with similar responses, be it about their personality or their training or combat ability. Then a photo of her other childhood friend. "Hayate-chan. Criminal. Evil. I hate her." She immediately shot a hand to her mouth. "No, not like that."

"Yes. We know." Fate, who was still next to her, was fast in reassuring the girl.

"I'll need to look into this more." The librarian continued. "From what I can tell, it wasn't exactly a brainwash. I think that they put some kind of strong suggestion in your head." He sighed. "But what troubles me is that this suggestion isn't exactly normal. Judging by this video, at least. I'll look more into it once I get back in the library."

"Are you sure they will not come after you?" The redeyed woman asked, concerned.

"I have my ways to deal with these things." He laughed it off. "Don't worry."

"Just... Take care, okay?" Nanoha said, as he walked to the door.

* * *

The darkness wasn't something completely unpleasant, the girl decided. The pain in her chest was still there, but remarkably less than she thought it would be. It had been turned into something like a stinging feeling when she moved her body in certain ways, but nothing more than that. Her eyes were more or less patched up. Shamal didn't know if she would be able to see again, since that wasn't one of the specialties the Lady of the Lakes picked up through the years. Teana would need to have a proper examination, since all that the emergency treatment that Shamal could do was remove the glasses from her eyes and apply small healing spells on them, to prevent the eye bleeding from it. Nevertheless, she would still need to keep her eyes closed the entire time.

When someone wants to focus her attention in one of her senses, generally the first thing they do is close their eyes. When you want to enjoy music better, smell the perfume of a flower, and so on, the first action is close the eyes. That's because the sight is the only one of the senses that can be 'turned off' without much trouble. Just close your eyes. Now that she was with her eyes forcibly closed, her other senses picked up things that she would normally miss if it wasn't for this. Certain things she could pick up, like knowing how close a person was from her by the sounds the person would make. It wasn't a sixth sense, like seeing with her minds eye, but she wasn't completely ignorant to her surroundings and knowing that soothed her a little.

Her teacher and squad leader had come to her earlier that day, to thank her for saving her daughter. And from what she heard from the Commander, she was doubly so, being the one who gave birth to the little girl. Not that it mattered much, since they both pretty much were mother and daughter all along, but it was nice to think that there was some type of greater power in this world moving the pieces so they could be together. She was thinking about these things when a voice took her out of her reverie.

"They already told her." The voice echoed in the room solemn, and almost uncaring. "But I think it's better if we leave her alone for now. Testarossa is with her, and from what Yuuno told us, they revealed everything to her at once."

The blind girl felt her friend breathe with a different rythm and a little heavier and understood that she had winced at the revelation. That was a revelation in itself for the girl. She could imagine her blue haired friend grimmacing without even looking. All the years they've been together must have helped her in that regard, because she could almost see the girl. "That's kinda cruel, don't you think?" She heard the girl saying.

"Maybe." She heard a male voice in the room, different from Erio's. Older and deeper. "But now we don't have time to ease things on her. She needs to aknowlowdge everything and move on, before we take our next step."

"What do you mean, Chrono-kun?" Her Commander asked.

"We need to start planning what to do, not only with the geezers, but with Scaglietti too. If one of his bases do activate, we'll have the JS Incident in our hands all over again." The Admiral answered as Teana felt the mood in the room get heavier. "For now, I'm changing the ship's route back to MidChilda. I think that there's no need for us to stay wandering in space any longer."

"But wouldn't we land in Mau Gram this morning?"

"We would. But I received orders to look for you guys on Alzus." He sighed. "That means some other ship will come to Mau Gram sooner or later. We need to change courses. To get to Alzus we'll need to pass near Mid again."

"Okay. Thank you, Chrono-kun."

* * *

Several hours had passed since the moment she received that load of information. At the moment she was sitting on the floor of the room Chrono had provided for Fate and her daughter. She still hadn't told anything to the little blonde, because she would probably not understand right away, but what was important was that she was her mother. In right and de facto. "Come here, sweetie." She called the little girl playing with a few cubes in front of her.

The blonde got up from the floor and bounced her way to her mother, receiving another hug when she was at arm's length. She was giggling happily at all the attention she was receiving at the moment.

"Just stay here a moment, okay?" She hugged the little girl. Thinking back on all that was said to her, only two things really made into her mind. Vivio was her daughter, and Hayate wasn't her enemy. Earlier, she had went to see Teana and thank the girl for being there for her daughter, but in the same room with the gunslinger was the Belkan mage. Nanoha would have jumped at her throat with her bare hands if she wasn't carrying Vivio in that moment, and a toughtful hand wasn't on her shoulder. Fate's hand. It gave her time enough to realize what she was about to do, and she calmed down before she actually did something that would be motive for even more regrets later. After that she holed up in the room. She did receive a couple of visits from the other passengers of the ship, including a really pissed off Vita. The little Belkan knight was furious when she entered the room and lectured Nanoha to no end. By the time she had finished her little rampant of anger, all she could do was ask her if she was alright or if she needed anything else.

According to Fate, they were affraid to tell her the news at first because they still weren't completely sure that it was the truth. They were afraid of what reaction she would have upon hearing the news and wanted to first know the whole truth to be certain. If it wasn't really true, if Vivio wasn't her daughter, then some other girl was being raised somewhere without her. Nanoha knew in her gut that Vivio was the one but she didn't have any proof of that. In a certain way, Nanoha was feeling distressed over it. Why did they need to tell her now of all times?

Of course, she already knew that answer as well. They need to bring justice to those that died just so they could continue with their charade. They would need to pay, not only for taking her daughter away from her for all those years, but for destroying the lives of innocent families because of her. And there was still the deal with Scaglietti. She hugged her daughter tighter one more time. "Vivio. Mama needs to do something right now, okay? Be a good girl and wait here. I'll ask Arf or Zafira to come here and keep you company, okay?"

When her mother let go of her, she nodded with a hummed response and went back to her puzzles. Nanoha got up, got the clothes that Fate had prepared for her and entered the bathroom annex with the room. After a quick shower, she got out of the bathroom, gave a quick goodbye kiss on her daughter and left the room.

* * *

A/N: I had another two scenes to put in this chapter but a dumb finger and a unsaved file later and I need to rewrite those. =\

Anyway, next chapter will probably be more action centered again, but I'm still not sure. There's something that I need to do before at least, so I can't say for sure how will the next chapter play out.

I'm no eye doctor, and know next to nothing in that area, but the little research I did on the subject matched with I had in mind for the fic, so at least there's no worries on that front. ^^

And again, thanks to 00-Raiser/F91 for proofreading.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 10 – Hurdle**

**By Sniperk**

**

* * *

**She walked outside the room where she knew the briefing was being held. The girl paced from one side of the door to the other, as the options of what to do danced in her mind. Several times she reached for the panel to wave her entrance, but decided against it moments later. This was going on already for several minutes when finally she gave up and opened the door, hoping that the first person she should see was her red eyed friend. She took a peek inside and thankfully the one to notice her was the Captain of the ship. Chrono waved his hand indicating Fate that there was someone for her at the door.

Immediately after seeing the girl, the Enforcer leaped out of her seat and rushed to the door. "What is it, Nanoha?"

"Fate-chan, bind me." Was the first thing the woman blurted out.

Fate took a moment to let the request process in her mind. "What!?"

"I don't want to attack Hayate-chan out of the blue again, but I want to do something. I don't want to be here without doing anything when everything that's happening is because of me, some way or the other."

The blonde understood what her friend meant but even then. "You know that my binds won't hold you for too long. If for some reason you want to escape them, you will. You know that."

"Then ask Shamal, or Yuuno-kun, or Arf. There's got to be a way to at least let me participate in this." The brunette continued.

"Okay..." Fate thought a moment, then turned to the others inside the room. "Chrono. Is there another room where Nanoha can stay and participate the meeting through a comn link?"

Several minutes later, Nanoha was sitting in Chrono's office, watching on the display the several people that were in the briefing room. Chrono, Fate, Arf, Shamal and Zafira. Yuuno had teleported back to the Infinity Library the night before. Hayate was in the meeting too, she knew, but she was purposely in a blind spot from the angle the Ace was watching. The Commander came up with a way for her to voice her opinions and ideas during the meeting. She would telepathically tell Shamal, and the Lady of Lakes would voice the thoughts. All to keep the possibility of an outburst from her to a minimum.

During the time they were discussing what to do, a call from Yuuno flashed in front of them. "I hope you have some good news, Ferret."

"We'll see." Another screen popped beside the one where Yuuno was appearing, but not in the office where Nanoha was. "These are the sequences that was shown to Nanoha when she was in the island. If you watch closely, the first few lines are identical. Then they change in the two messages. I couldn't make out several of the symbols because of the quality of the video, but I think it's safe to assume that the first lines are the trigger, and the rest is the command." He looked at a notepad, then turned again to the screen. "Shamal-san, Arf, can I ask a favour from you two?"

Both of them nodded. "What is it?" Shamal asked.

"Nanoha, do you mind if I turn you into my guinea pig for this?"

"Why? What do you want to do?"

"Here's the deal. Both Shamal and Arf will bind you with their strongest spells. After this, I'll present you the codes again, and see if there's a reaction. Is that okay?"

"Hey, isn't that dangerous?" Chrono asked, almost shouting, with a tinge of anger and concern in his eyes. "What if she goes berserk like last time?"

"To be honest, I don't know what'll happen." Yuuno replied sincerely. "But there's no other way for us to test this right now, and our time is running out." He sighed. "And if my assumptions are correct then we have a way to dodge the problem for the time being."

"Let's do this then." Nanoha agreed. "Where is the best place for us to do this?"

Chrono sighed in defeat. "In my office. It's the sturdiest place in the whole ship."

A few minutes later, the Ace was bound to a chair in the office, accompanied in the room by Shamal and Arf. Fate, Hayate and Chrono stayed back on the briefing room, watching the whole thing by the communication link. "Are you ready?" Yuuno asked, and the girl nodded. "Let's start then." The same sequence of characters appeared in the screen and Nanoha felt the familiar feeling of being enticed by the display.

All of sudden, she snapped back. "What?"

The librarian nodded. "That's it. The initial sequence is really only a keycode to make your mind more susceptible to the suggestion that comes with the rest of the message." He continues. "Okay, let's try this again. Just that this time, I'll cite the sequence. Let's see if there's a reaction." Nanoha patiently heard the librarian continue to cite the seemingly endless sequence. "Did you felt something?" The girl waved negatively. "Perfect."

"What?"

"Your rehab was done by visual stimulation, then so was the programming. The process is similar to how the memories are implanted in clones from the Project F." He started, seemingly ignoring the question. "The code sequence isn't a brainwash. They conditioned your brain to recognize those symbols and sequences, and through them, implant a strong suggestion in your mind, one that you couldn't refute easily as false." He smiled inwardly at his discovery. "Shamal-san, Arf. Can you undo the binds?" Both complied.

Chrono leaned forward. "So you know the sequence, right?" The librarian waved his head.

"No, I don't know the whole sequence. Just the trigger. If I knew more, I would come up with a sequence to undo the first one, but I have too little information to decode the whole thing."

"So? What good did this whole thing do then?" Chrono asked.

"Okay. Let me explain everything. First, watching the video we can see that you refuted the first command, but obeyed the second. Both sequences have the same length, only differ on the content after the first lines." He scribbled in his notepad again. "My guess is that in the first command, they wanted you to go against all of the people in Riot Six, which is denied by the lines you shout at the General after the sequence is over. Now imagine that the second sequence talks only about one person, only about Hayate. The length is the same, so the load of information against only her is obviously much heavier. That's why your mind couldn't go against it and snapped under the suggestion."

They let the information sink in during several moments, then Hayate voiced, forgetting that Nanoha could hear her. "You said that there's a way to solve this..."

Strangely, even for herself, Nanoha didn't reacted to Hayate's voice as much as she thought she would. She looked at the screen were Yuuno was and he nodded pleased. "I didn't say that we have a way to solve this. I said that there's a way to dodge it. But it'll require much of your willpower, Nanoha."

"What can I do?"

"Close your eyes." The others exchanged confused looks before he continued. "You react to the visual stimulus, not to the sound stimulus. And that's where your willpower will play it's part. People, when hearing another person's voice, but not seeing them, automatically imagine their faces in their minds. It's a normal reaction, but that's where your mind is playing against you. You can't do that. You'll need to picture anything else you want, besides Hayate, do you understand?"

The Ace nodded. That wasn't something easy to do. Even during Yuuno's explanation, Nanoha had automatically pictured Ace of the Ground, feeling a bit of anger.

"I'll continue to search for a way to completely remove this programming from you, but for now, that's the best we can do." He said, apologetically.

"Thanks, Yuuno-kun."

"Then I'll be going-" Yuuno started, but was cut off.

"Wait." Chrono said. "There's something still bothering me. Why did you take your sweet time citing that whole sequence to her?"

"Well, if you must know..." Yuuno sat back. "I did that to confirm that the sequence is a visual stimulus, not phonal."

"Then that means that even if Nanoha hears the code she'll not fall under their control?" Fate tried to piece it together.

"Yes." The librarian replied instantly. "Then I'll be going now... Anything else?" He added, just in case. When no one made mention to say anything, he cut the call.

They all stayed silent after the call, absorbing all of the librarian's findings. Nanoha rolled the information in her mind for a few minutes, then suddenly shot from her seat and out of the door, before the others could ask anything.

* * *

"Now, I was wondering..." The little Belkan knight was inside one of the ship's practice rooms with the four forwards. She was walking back and forth in front of the group, tapping Graf Eisen on her shoulder lightly, while talking. "How the hell did you three got so beat up fighting against gadgets types two and three? Specially since you guys already said that there wasn't so many of them down there. Care to explain to me?"

Teana felt helpless with the situation. She wasn't even in this mission, then why was she there with the others being reprimanded? Subaru looked at the other two, trying to figure out what to say, but nothing good seemed to come to her mind. Erio and Caro weren't faring much better at figuring out the question and just stared at their instructor with half-blank looks. Signum stayed on the corner watching the whole display.

"Okay." Vita intended to simply tap her device on the floor, but used a little too much force and effectively batted it near her feet. "Let's start from the beginning then. You'll figure it out on your own. Subaru."

"Yes." The girl yelped and stiffened almost instantly.

"What is the basic formation to use in combat when there are three people in the team?"

The girl seemed to think a little. "Triangular, Ma'am."

"Very good." Despite the compliment, the instructor didn't seemed pleased at all. "Erio, Caro, do you agree?" Both ten year olds nodded at her. "Then, Erio. Tell me, what are the positions that the three should stay in."

"Erm... A Front Attacker, a Defender and a Supporter?" He tried.

"Very good. You guys seem to have done your homework." Vita stopped and put the tip of her device in the floor, turning herself to them. Both hands on the end of the handle of the device. "Caro." She gasped when her name was called. "Between the three of you, who took which position?"

"Subaru-san was the Front Attacker, Erio-kun the Supporter and I was the Defender." She said firmly, despite her worries.

"Okay, now, tell me, who said you were the Defender?"

The girl seemed uneasy. "No one did. I assumed that I was because of my positioning, and since I'm a full back when there's a full team."

"Same to you two?" She asked the others.

"Yes. I'm the Front Attacker, regardless of the team formation," Subaru seemed uneasy at her own response. "Right?" She asked turning to Erio.

"I agree too." The boy said, without thinking.

"Okay, so you all _assumed_ your positions, right?" Vita continued.

"Yes, Ma'am." The three answered in unison.

The gunslinger was about to ask again why was she there too, when her instructor called her. "Teana."

"Y-Yes, Ma'am?"

"Do you agree with them?"

The girl thought about the issue for a full second before answering. "Yes."

"Okay, then. Moving on. Subaru, how did you get that cut on your eyebrow?"

"I..." She cleared her throat forcefully, trying to gain a few seconds to think. "...I was attacking one of the first gadgets that appeared, then a second one appeared at my back and when I saw it, it was too late to raise a shield so I parried it's tentacles with my Revolver Knuckle, then Erio came from behind it and destroyed it, but the tentacle slapped me as it flew away."

Vita stood in front of them, with both her hands on top of her devices handle. The tip of Graf Eisen was on the floor. She nodded in understanding. "Erio."

"Yes."

"Why did you take so long to attack the gadget that was closing on another person of your team?"

"I didn't take that long, maybe a second or two, to attack it." The redhaired boy tried to defend his actions.

"I'm not even going to ask what you were doing, Caro, because I probably know the answer. You were scanning for enemys, and the casting of your protection spells were delayed, right?"

The pinkhaired summoner nodded.

"Very well, you unborns." The Belkan Knight shouted, angry. The three flinched. They had just been demoted from newborns in their Vice-Captain's view. "I'll tell you why you three got so beat up." She entered her instructor mode. "First. No one stated who was in wich position. No one assumed command of the mission. You three just entered there with the mission in your heads, but didn't think about the means to achieve the goal. Even if none of you took the responsibility of being in charge, you should at least voice to the others which position you were, even if in the end you all assumed your positions correctly in the formation."

Signum approached the group and continued the lecture. "You three are more accustomed to fight with a four men team or in doubles. When fighting in a team, in a formation less practiced, it is good to let everyone else know what position you are. It reassures the others that you know what you're doing. When no one says anything, you keep unconsciously second guessing if the others are doing what they're supposed to do, and that slows the team overall."

Vita nodded and continued. "And, because of that, you three ended up unconsciously acting as if you were in a four man team. That second gadget was to be destroyed by the cover fire coming from the Center. That's why Erio and Caro took too long to cover you." She said looking at the blue haired girl. "Now, since that one is out of commission," She said pointing to the blinded girl. "We'll train in triangular formation."

Teana felt unnerved by the remark. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't on that mission. If someone was at fault it was her Vice-Captain. She almost voiced that, but decided not to. After calming herself, she thought that it was better that she had to stay back on base. Otherwise, Vivio and Aina would be dead. She heard the sounds of the others getting up and starting to stretch, and followed suit.

"Oi, what do you think you're doing, Teana?"

"Getting up?" She answered immediately.

"Don't even think that you'll be training. Signum here will-"

Vita was cut off when Nanoha stormed in the training room. "Vita-chan. Take care of them for me, please."

Vita nodded surprised. "Hm-n... I was about to-"

"You come with me." She cut the little Belkan knight again, and proceeded to drag the gunslinger by the wrist out of the room.

"What the?" She looked at Signum.

"Don't ask me." The pinkhaired knight shrugged.

* * *

The blonde Belkan Mage was inside her office in the Saint Church on the self governed Belkan zone situated on the norhtern part of Midchilda accompanied by the head nun and her personal friend. In front of them, several windows displayed numerous TV channels, as they studied the news that were blowing out of proportion the situation that her protegeé was in. Several lies and other distorted facts were being relayed to the public as if it were known facts. They were busying themselves, joting down the information they would need to clarify, or at least deny them in the press conference she had called for later that day, when Verossa entered the room.

"Here it is." The green haired man hastily walked inside. "Everything I could gather on them that seemed slightly suspicious is here."

Carim took the folder in hands and opened. "Do you think there's something here that we can use right away?"

"Maybe. I dug up so many things there that I don't even know if anything can be used at all." Verossa grimaced. "But we can at least create a ruckus in the media with it."

"Then let's get down to it." Schach ushered them, as they started to read the contents of the package.

A couple of hours later, Carim was standing in front of the Saint Church, with several microphones on a podium in front of her. Behind her, both Sister Schach and Verossa were standing, waiting for it to start. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm glad to see that you took your time to come here, and I'm terrible sorry about the long delay for me to make this declaration." She smiled at the several cameras that were positioned behind the journalists. She took a deep breath and closed her face. "Let me start saying that I'm deeply disappointed with the way the media is handling this whole situation. I don't know where the information came from, and to be honest, we do not care. I spoke with several of the other directors from the Board of the TSAB and none of them were aware of these facts that are being reported in the news as being leaked from the TSAB itself. We're not so ignorant to believe that there's no corruption inside the government or the Board of Directors itself, as in any other layers of the Bureau, but until this moment, every fact that was presented to us had been already proven wrong or half-true. To this moment, I haven't received, nor have any of the Directors, any clear cut facts that could in the least point that Lieutenant Colonel Yagami Hayate, or Enforcer Fate Testarossa Harlaown, or any of the accused, of being terrorists. It struck me as strange that from the three Aces of the Bureau, two of them were terrorists, and were manipulating the third Ace, so..." She pointed to Verossa behind her. "I had Inspector Acous here personally investigate every order sent to the military and every fact that was relayed to the public through the press and none of them hold themselves. It would be too much right now to list through them all, so I'll refrain from doing so, but I'll answer any question that you might have." She stopped and took a half step back, prompting the reporters to fire their questions.

Several of them shot their arms up almost instantly. Carim backtracked her step, and pointed one of them. "Robert Myrth, from Channel 8 News. It was reported that the Commander of Riot Force Six, Yagami Hayate used underhand methods to recruit the Ace of Aces, Takamachi Nanoha to train her recruits. Is that true?"

"No. As I believe that most of the public know by now, because they never intended to hide, the three Aces are childhood friends. Captain Takamachi was offered a position as squad leader and instructor several years before even Commander Yagami had finished her training to be a unit Commander, and was still a Special Investigator for the Ground Forces. From what we know, she received the offer one day after the fire incident that took out more than half of the Eight Coastal Airport, on North of MidChilda, four years ago."

Again the reporters shot their arms up, and Carim picked another. "Good afternoon. Celia Rose, from YGB NewsFlash. It was informed by a helicopter pilot that both Fate T. Harlaown and Yagami Hayate were overseeing Subaru and Teana's B-Rank exam. It was informed too that they pulled strings so they could take a make-up exam after they failed the first one."

"They were indeed overseeing the exam, because they were possible recruits scouted personally by their future squad leader, Captain Takamachi, and both of them wanted to know the abilities of their new recruits for the unit that was forming. It's a normal procedure within the military. The fact that both failed the exam proves it too, since one of the proctors of that exam was Captain Takamachi, and she was the one who reproved both of them, and recommend both of them for the make up exam, as proven on these reports." She took a sheet of paper and showed to her audience. Then she handed the reports to the nun. "After this, Sister Schach will provide you with copies of these reports."

"Carl Martinez, The Nation. It was said that Yagami Hayate still possesses the Book of The Night Sky, more commonly known as The Book of Darkness, and that's why her knights, the Wolkenritter, are still alive. Is that true?"

"Not in the least. First, this was a supposition raised by Doctor Hans Klautzberg, but he didn't presented any evidence that it was true, only his conjectures." She selected another set of papers from the stand. "Here are a few reports that we can release for the public, since this case's details are still mostly classified, even if it's well known. Even so, these files are more than enough to prove that the Book of Darkness was destroyed at the end of the incident."

"Joana Clio. Clanagan Daily News. It was stated that Enforcer Fate Testarossa Harlaown was working along side with Jail Scaglietti and the only reason why the JS Incident occurred was because of a disagreement between them."

"Again, no evidence was shown. Here I have a transcript and an audio file from Enforcer Fate's device that was recorded during the final showdown between Scaglietti himself and the Enforcer. Again, after this each of you can have a copy of this, but as you'll see from the exchanged words between them, they hadn't even met until that fateful day."

Verossa grimaced. Carim was pushing it now, he knew. Several of those files were and continued to be confidential, but she was presenting them anyway. He was well aware that the fact that his blonde stepsister was risking her position in the Board of Directors disclosing those files, but at the moment it was the only way for them to come clean with the public.

* * *

The four forwards were uneasy. The plan to strike the HQ was at the very least, too basic. One team would charge in through the front of the building, and they would strike through the back as soon as the others created the diversion. But they trusted their commanders, and squad captains, yet they were being pressured in that moment. Their part in the attack plan was one of the more important, if not the most important.

"Remember what I told you, guys." Teana sent mentally to the other three. "Maintain your barriers up at all times." There was two main reasons for this, they knew. One was the obvious extra protection they would have with their defenses up, but the second was the most important for the gunslinger. It was the only way she could read the positioning of her partners, by feeling the magic waves. The three hour crash course that Nanoha gave her was all she had to go at the moment, but her presence there was essential to the plan.

_"This is the diversion team. We're on position."_ The Lady of the Lakes informed through the telepathic link. The diversion team consisted of her, Vita, Signum and Zafira. They were hidden along the grove in front of the main entrance of the Ground Forces HQ.

_"This is the strike team."_ Subaru answered, _"Hearing loud and clear."_ She was, along with Teana, Erio and Caro, at the back of the building, waiting for the others to create the ruckus so they could invade the place. _"On your signal."_

_"We're going in, then."_ Shamal warned again telepathically. Few moments later, they all could sense the battle taken place on the other side. The three of them waited for Shamal to wave them in. After a short minute that seemed like an eternity to them the answer came. _"Go."_ The simple word was like fire that lit the fuse of the group, as they scrambled to the building, knocking out several mages in the process.

Once they got to the main hall of the building, they could see the others battling on the other side through the glass walls. _"We'll take the staircases."_ Teana commanded mentally, following the steps of the little boy, reading the movements of his barrier and imitating them. "Subaru, get down." She shouted as soon as she reached the end of the first set of stairs. She felt her friend stopping in her tracks while she maneuvered her energy shots to pass by her, make a hard turn at the end of the next set of stairs and nail two men that were coming from the corridor in the next floor. "Okay. All clear. Go." She said, and started to concentrate again on the barrier Erio was projecting when a shrill voice came from her back.

"No, stop!" Caro warned. "There's a electrified barrier there." She said, consulting her map. The HQ had been reconstructed after the events of the JS Incident, but, thankfully for them, the internal defenses were still the same. In her map, Caro knew which was the best route to get to their destination.

Three floors later, after a total of three missteps by the gunslinger, six internal guards knocked unconscious and two defensive barriers deactivated, they got to their destination. One of the observatory rooms on the fourth floor. The door from where they came from was directly opposite to four elevators in the other wall that would lead directly to the top floors. They rushed to them, dancing around the furniture that was left seemingly disregarded everywhere. Teana was already feeling the magical readings behind her, when the loud, commanding voice came. "You are surrounded. Disengage your weaponry and come quietly."

Despite the forewarning they took the remaining steps to the elevators and each went into one of them. After pressing a button, the elevators' doors closed. "The elevators are useless. We already took care of them. They are nonfunctional until this attack is taken care of." The man said as the doors opened again. "Disengage your weaponry and come quietly." The man repeated. The four forwards stepped out of their respective elevators with their hands up. The man snickered. "Did you guys really think that I wouldn't read a simple attack plan like this from miles away?" He took a few steps in their direction, while the other mages in the room were all pointing their staffs at the quartet, charging their attacks.

"Well," Subaru smiled, despite her predicament. "We've done what we could." And nodded to the summoner.

Seconds later, a explosion took out one of the elevators in a pink blast of energy, almost at the same time that a fireball blasted the windows of the place and Caro raised a pink shield to envelop all of them. During the time the men lost to protect themselves, the four forwards managed to jump out of the building and on the back of Friedrich, that immediately took flight away from the HQ. The gunslinger used that moment to create seven more illusionary copies of the group that flew in different directions. If the guards weren't so set in following the intruders, maybe they would have noticed the three figures that flew directly upwards through the now open elevator pit.

* * *

Chrono was restless. He couldn't delay his ship from departing to Alzus for too long, but he was still stationed in MidChilda's orbit. He tried several times to contact the ones that descended to the planet, but their communication links were disabled. Part of him understood that they would not be reachable before the mission was over, but the other part of him continued to try and contact them, thinking that if he managed to talk to them, then the mission was over and it was a success.

Amidst all of this, he saw on one of the TV channels that he had tuned on a side screen of his office's desk the image of the blonde Belkan Knight, giving a press conference. They had already talked about it, and if she was going to do what she said to him, she would get into deeper troubles. Chrono thought that would be better to leak information gradually to the press, manipulating from the shadows so the truth could be revealed, but this method would take too much time and time was something that they didn't have. He increased the volume to hear her statements.

"_...until that fateful day._"

"_Urabus Ratsnal. Channel 32. It was stated that Subaru Nakajima was a combat cyborg offered to Fate T. Harlaown by Jail Scaglietti as a gift, for her to use however they pleased._"

"_Subaru Nakajima was born a human being that was transformed into a combat cyborg. I won't deny that. But the problem with that statement lies in that she's a cyborg, not a robot. Subaru Nakajima is a human being, not a computer. She can't be reprogrammed, as was stated before. Speaking in technical terms, she doesn't have an AI controlling her actions that can be reprogrammed. She has a human brain controlling her actions and only parts of her body are mechanical. You can ask any scientist, or even a sci-fi fan, and they'll point you the difference between a Cyborg and a Robot. Subaru Nakajima was raised as a human being and will continue to live her life as one._"

Chrono couldn't help but smile at the way her friend was shooting down every single piece of information that was thrown at her. He still frowned when she used a few of the confidential reports to prove her point, but by then, she was already way past the point of no return.

"_Caroline Trend. ZH Radio News. We received information stating that the order to execute the siege on Riot Six was issued by the Three Admirals themselves. It is possible that they received pieces of information that were not relayed to other parts of the Bureau._"

The Admiral sat on the edge of his chair, waiting for the Blonde Knight's response. Her next answer would probably open a hell hole on TSAB politics and in the military. He watched as the blonde took a deep breath, but when she was about to talk, an emergency call flashed in front of the monitor, claiming his attention.

"Can't this wait a little?" Was the first remark he made as soon as he answered the call made by the librarian.

"_No. It's an emergency. Are Hayate or Nanoha still on the ship?_" Yuuno shouted from the other side, getting the attention from the Admiral instantly. The blonde man wasn't someone to raise his voice without a good reason.

"No. They are already carrying on the mission."

"_Do you have any way to contact them?_"

"They disabled all communication links, as to not be tracked. There's no way to talk to them now."

"_Oh, god. Where are they?_"

"If everything is going according to the plan, they should be at the Ground Forces HQ right now."

"_I'm going there. Chrono, where are you stationed?_"

"On Mid's orbit. What is it, Ferret? Tell me what's happening already."

"_I'll tell you after I finish the leap. Just promise that whatever you do, leave the Claudia there._" He finished the call, leaving the Admiral dumbstruck.

* * *

The three Aces found their way to the top of the building with almost no problems, aside from the people they left binded in the basement. They entered through the Rotary Hall, and from there waited for the signal to clear their path to the top floor. They decided that, if there was need for combat, Nanoha would be the Front Attacker, that way there was less chance that the Ace of Aces would loose control and attack the Belkan mage. Fate would stay in between them, and Hayate would be the Defender, even if she didn't have a good range of skills to pull it off, her Unison with Reinforce II gave her at least a few options so she could act as one. The information that they gathered through Chrono and Carim stated that their Three targets were on the top floor of that building.

Nanoha being in front of the trio, got first to the top floor and proceeded to blow away the elevator door from inside the pit. The three Aces entered the observatory room that occupied the entire floor, and immediately saw that it was completely devoid of any guards or any other type of security system. On the far left side, three people were looking at a monitor where images of the cases the three Aces had participated in were being presented. It had images of almost every case they worked through the years, from the Jewel Seed Incident until the recent JS Incident outbreak. The Aces knew that the people would know that they would come to them, one way or another. What bothered them was that they didn't have any extra security with them.

Nanoha was getting uneasy, because the Three didn't seem to take notice of the invasion, even if she had just exploded the elevator door from where they entered. She was about to call to them when one of the elderly men rose from his seat and turned to them. "Good afternoon, Takamachi-san, Yagami-san, Harlaown-san." He bowed. "I take it that you three didn't come here to have a pleasant conversation over a cup of tea, judging by the means you used to enter the room and the way you are cladded."

Nanoha gripped her Device's handle harder. "You know-"

"My, my, my." The only woman in the oposing trio cut the Ace's sentence, getting up from her seat and turning to them. "Why would the three of you enter this place in such a disgraceful way? Couldn't you be civilized enough to mark an audience like any normal person?" Mizetto turned again to the screens. "You used to be so delicate and cooperative in the past."

"What do you-" Fate was the one cut off this time.

"I don't know who taught you manners, but it seems that at least a refresher session is in order." The third older man, the one that was wearing glasses, said, without getting up from his seat.

"Why the need to act like you weren't expecting us, when you clearly were?" Hayate took a the two steps that was separating her from the other two and aligned herself alongside Fate, leaving Nanoha on the other side of their blonde friend, her expression hard. "We came here only to talk, but thanks to some kind of misunderstanding, we are now publicly known as terrorists." She said sarcastically, altought she didn't move a single muscle on her face to change her expression.

"I see." The older woman voiced. "We all have some things in our pasts that we want to hide from the others, right?"

"But these things come back to haunt us one day or the other." Nanoha completed her sentence. "At the time I thought that was just your knowledge speaking, and never took it at face value." She gritted her teeth. "Why did you do that to me?" She shouted angrily.

"Maintaining the peace and the way of life of those who are protected by the Bureau is always the first and foremost thing in every action we take." Fils adjusted his glasses. "If you can't see the bigger picture, you can't be a good leader." He completed calmly.

"So, you... used me. Used us." Nanoha said.

"Yes." Ralgo didn't bothered to deny that statement. "Every tool needs to be used the right way."

"Every tool has a purpose, some more obscure than the others, but they all have at least one." Mizetto continued. "That's why tools have to be handled with good care, so they can be used when the time where they are needed comes."

"When a tool has reached it's usefulness, and it can't be fixed anymore, then it's discarded." Disdainfully, Fils finished.

"Then to you, peoples lives are simple 'tools'?" Fate asked, dumbfounded. She wasn't expecting what the three of them were saying. From a corner of her mind, she could relate what they were talking to the way her own mother treated her, and how that ultimately led Precia to her own demise.

"Yes." Again Ralgo was the one to answer. "You aren't the first ones to be like this and I doubt it will be last."

"Though you didn't reach your usefulness yet, you are already broken, poisoned by the truths that shouldn't ever be revealed." The bespectacled man continued. Raising Heart's tip started to glow in a faint pink light. "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Remember this?" The elderly woman said, as she waved her hand and a panel appeared in front of her. "We don't want to loose all three Aces in a single shot. That would be too much for the morale of the military. If we could at least save you." She typed a few keys in the panel and a screen appeared in front of the three Aces. Hayate saw with horror as the sequence of characters continued to flow in the screen, and immediately looked at the twintailed brunette.

"Nanoha!" Fate yelled as she tried to shield her friend from the screen with her own body. The screen disappeared a second later, as Nanoha swung her device hard and Fate was sent sliding back, her back against the Admirals.

Nanoha turned to Hayate and the short haired girl changed her view from Fate to her other childhood friend, as Raising Heart declared. "Blaster Second."

"You know, Hayate-chan," Nanoha started, with her head down, eyes hidden with her bangs. "there was once a girl who was in a wheelchair. She didn't have a family, and was slowly dieing from a unknown kind of paralysis. The Doctors didn't know what to do anymore. All they could do was ease her pain. She was all alone. Her world consisted of only her house, her books and the hospital. But she never despaired."

Fate shifted from her fighting stance to stay erect, even as Bardiche loaded a cartridge, and a magical sigil sprung to life at her feet.

"That girl," Nanoha continued, anger rising on her tone. "Didn't know about mages or magic. She didn't know anything about it until the world of magic crashed down at her." The Admirals exchanged confused looks. "She suddenly had the opportunity of receiving a great power. She had the opportunity of being transformed into a omnipotent being." Nanoha lifted her head a little, but Hayate still couldn't see her eyes.

"Nanoha-chan..." Hayate tried weakly, and instantly saw the Ace shiver.

Nanoha's body continued to face the Ace of the Ground. "But she didn't want it. She didn't want that power if it would create problems for other people. The only thing she wanted was a family." Nanoha finished uprighting her head. She had her eyes closed. "I considered that little girl to be one of my best friends. I believed in that kind and selfless girl. I believed her every single word." She gripped harder on the handle of her device. "And I still do." She lifted her head, opening her eyes to her friend.

The elderly woman looked at her panel again and sighed. "And it was a heavier charge, too." She mused. "Oh, well. Now we'll need to look for a new Ace of Aces too." She said to herself, though everyone in the room heard.

"Restrict Lock." Nanoha's device called as the Blaster bits flew across the room and tied the three old people with pink strings of energy, though the owner of said device continued to look at her friend.

"Nice trick." Fils noted, not bothering to fight the binds.

"Why do young people nowadays always resort to violence?" Mizetto waved her head negatively.

"It's strange, isn't it?" The remaining one finished. "Though it's a shame." Ralgo said, as the three of them started to glow a faint purple light. "There's hardly anything you can do to us." The binds around them started to dissolve and then broke.

Not bothering with the little exchange behind her, Fate was still with her eyes glued on Nanoha. Even if she said all that, she still didn't tear her gaze away from the Belkan Mage and that worried the blonde. Nanoha took a tentative step in the direction of Hayate when her device cried. "Master."

"Hayate-chan!" Reinforce II warned too, albeit too late as the three women where locked inside a cubicle, similar to Nanoha's Cristal Cage.

Fate eyed the Three Admirals, before turning again to her two friends. The Ace of Aces was still looking at Hayate. She took the few steps that she was away from them and stood directly in between the two. At this Nanoha snapped and looked at her red eyes. "Fate-chan?" She asked, confused.

Understanding the situation, Fate talked mentally. _"They already know that you can overpower the command. I doubt that they'll try again."_ As if to go against the blonde's words, several windows appeared all around them inside the cubicle, all of them displaying the sequence of characters.

Nanoha saw what was coming and wanted to close her eyes, but couldn't. Her body wasn't answering to her will, as she looked at one of the screens in front of her. Then suddenly her vision went dark. Fate had placed her hand over the Ace's eyes. Nanoha snapped again at the touch. "I'm alright, Fate-chan. I know what I have to do. Concentrate in destroying this barrier." She said, holding the blonde's hand on top with her own, and slowly moving it from the place it was.

"Rein," Hayate called her device. "We need to get out of here. Any ideas?" She wanted to get over that situation as soon as possible. Receiving the troubled gaze her friend was directing her until moments before was toring her from the inside.

"Hayate-chan..." Reinforce II called weakly. "I'm feeling strange..."

"Rein?! Hey, Rein, what's wrong?"

The little unison device shook her head from her place inside Hayate. "No. It's okay, I can handle this for now." The Belkan mage wasn't sure if she should trust her companion or cancel the Unison.

Hayate was still debating with herself, when she heard Nanoha's voice. "Let's get this over with." She was in front of the trio, magical energy charging on the tip of her device. "Raising Heart." She called.

"Axel Shooter." The device answered.

"Let me handle the barrier." Fate called and stepped up front. "Bardiche."

"Zanbar Form." The device called as it's shape changed and a sword of energy formed. She swung her sword from side to side in front of her, electric magical energy seemingly forming arcs between the blade and the floor. "Sprite..." She shifted the sword, and positioned on her shoulders gripping with both hands. "...Zanbar!" She swung her sword down and a crack was created in the cubicle of purple energy, that collapsed moments later.

"Shoot!" Almost instantly Nanoha called her attack, and several balls of pink energy flew from her device.

"You know, we three may be old." Ralgo said. "But it doesn't mean that we are completely out of shape." He said as a barrier formed around the three, stopping the attacks.

"My, my. If there's no other way, then let us finish this quickly." Mizetto said, as she stepped to the side of the General.

"Maybe you can recognize this." Fils walked up front two steps, leaving the other two side by side.

"Rein," Hayate called, as a Belkan sigil appeared at her feet. "Think we can can create a lesser version of Das Gefängnis der Magie?"

"I don't know, but I'll try." The little girl answered. Seconds later, Hayate chanted the spell and the whole room was engulfed by a dark force field.

At the same time, Fate was lunging forward, calling for her device as it loaded two cartridges, striking it against Fils's staff handle. "From where did..." She didn't have time to finish her question, because two beams of energy, one purple and the other green hit her from both sides and sent her back.

"Excellion..." Nanoha called as Raising Heart's tip locked on the their front attacker. "...Buster!" She cried as the sizzling energy flew and collided against Fils's shield. The Ace was concentrating on her spell, but she felt that something wasn't right, and called it off at the same time her device called.

"Flash move." Nanoha moved back instantly, and two energy beams, purple and green, collided against each other again.

Hayate felt a strong beat on her heart, cutting her concentration for a split-second, but then she regained her composure. Watching the battle in front of her, she asked to the other two. "What kind of triangle formation is that?" The ones attacking were on the back and not the one in front.

"Don't recognize your own sigil?" Ralgo said. Hayate looked at her feet and saw the triangular Belkan magic sigil, then looked at the three. The three MidChildan sigils on their feet connected with each other, creating a pattern likened to a Belkan sigil. "It's inspired by the Belkan magic."

"Did you know about it, Nanoha?" Fate asked, looking at the Ace. It was only at that moment that she saw that the Ace had untied her hair and tied the ribbons around her head, to maintain her eyes closed.

"Yes." Nanoha grimmaced, while switching her footing and feeling the magical waves. "It's an old type of formation. But it isn't practiced anymore because it's too dangerous. The components need complete trust on the teammates to be able to pull it off." The Aces knew that the Three Admirals weren't anywhere near inexperienced, and they trusted each other. Truth be told, everyone knew the Three Great Admirals magical ranks, Mizetto being a AA+, Ralgo AAA, and Fils AA. In sheer power, they wouldn't stand a chance against any of the Aces. "If you fight against an opponent stronger than yourself..." She muttered.

"...you can't be weaker than that opponent." Fate finished. "If you want to beat someone stronger than you, you have to bring the fight to your specialty and beat him in it."

Mizetto clapped. "I see that you really understood your lessons."

"They are hoping to beat us with their teamwork?" Hayate asked.

"We can't think of this as three on three fight." Nanoha advised. "It's a three on one."

"Your potential to assess battles never ceased to amaze me, Nanoha-chan." Mizetto said sweetly.

"But I'm afraid your thinking is a little warped." Fils finished again.

"Hayate-chan!" Rein cried exasperatedly, but her master could not react on time. A bind was formed around her, immobilizing the Belkan mage.

Before Nanoha or Fate could turn around to help the binded mage, they were targeted by a shower of beams, green, purple and red, that rendered them unable to do anything else besides defend themselves for the time being.

Hayate struggled against the binds a little but when one of the beams was targeted at her, she had to dodge to the side, falling over. She managed to turn herself up, but when she looked to the battle in front of her again, another beam was nearing her. She didn't know what to do, and just closed her eyes. The explosion sent her flying in the air, managing to knock her unconscious.

Or so her two friends thought. When both of them got near her, Nanoha immediately jumped back, pulling Fate with her, just in time to hear Hayate calling. "Reactor Purge!" Her Knight's Garb exploded in a black burst of energy, taking the binds that were holding her. When the magical dust disappeared, the two of them could see the girl again.

Her hair had grown and turned silver colored.

* * *

A/N: I know some people will cringe at the way the Three Admirals act in this chapter, but as far as I know, aside from Mizetto, the other two barely had a line or two in canon, and in that, they barely had a personality set to begin with. Their magical ranks was something I made up (again, aside from Mizetto), so if it's wrong, please do correct me.

Das Gefängnis der Magie: Magical Prison.

Again, F91/00-Raiser proofreaded this. Even if he's so assailed with his own projects, he's still making time to help me with this. Thanks, man.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 11 - Program  
**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

They landed on the beach of the island. That was the only place that wasn't investigated directly by the Riot Six, and the four of them were in charge of uncovering the truths behind this place.

"No extra reactions on the sensors yet." The blonde was fast in reassuring the group. "It's still the same from when it was detected."

"Everyone okay?" Signum asked as she looked at the rest of the group. The battle that they staged back at the HQ wouldn't injure any of them seriously, she knew, but it was better to know than to guess. When the three nodded, she turned back to their objective. "Let's go then."

They floated above the treetops and landed beyond the wall surrounding the forgotten building. It was a small outpost left unoccupied, and the building itself couldn't be much larger than it seemed. Signum walked to the door, but when she reached for the doorknob, it broke on her touch.

"Oi, oi. No need to be so rough. It's just a door." Vita piped, getting a few chuckles and giggles from both Shamal and Zafira. She knew that the pinkhaired knight hadn't used any force at all on the broken doorknob, but they all needed to relieve some of the tension, the eternally little girl decided.

Signum put a hand on the door, but before she pressed it open, the four of them saw their vision get blurry and the world spin around them. Shamal fell flat on her bottom, while Vita and Signum used their devices as support to not fall to the ground. Zafira wondered if it was some kind of trap set off by their presence, but almost immediately dispensed the thought. That feeling was too familiar to be anything else.

"It can't be..." Shamal was the one to voice the idea that they all had in their minds.

"Let's go." Signum took flight, followed right after by Vita, Zafira and Shamal at last. "If... If she's back..." The dreaded tought cruised inside the knight's mind, making her feel unsure, and that was a feeling she hated the most.

* * *

"Hayate..." Fate asked, as the woman in front of her got to her feet, still naked from her spell.

"Hayate...-chan...?" Nanoha echoed, but then frowned. "No... I know you." She said, backing out another step.

"What..." The three elders in the room looked at each other.

The woman opened her eyes, and looked to the five people. Her red eyes scanned the others in the room without any emotion showing through her expression.

"Rein...force..." Fate said, not believing her eyes.

"Where's Hayate?" Nanoha asked after a few moments of the silent staring contest.

The woman cocked her head, but her eyes continued the same blank stare. "Meister..." She put her hand over her chest. "...is here."

* * *

"Optic Hide, disengage." The gunslinger commanded as the group landed on a small wooded area inside a park near their objective. Her Silhouettes managed to attract most of the unwanted attention to themselves, and now they where far enough from the HQ, so she didn't need to continue using that taxing spell. "Now we are on our own."

"Let's get going." The little summoner turned to her dragon. "Fried. Take care of Tea-san, please." The dragon glowed in a pink light before turning back into his small form, howling a understanding response.

"Take care, guys." The gunslinger warned, as the three hummed responses and dashed in the direction of their objective.

Several minutes later, the three of them saw the building while hiding in the alley between two other abandoned buildings. It was being guarded heavily by several mages, so she spoke mentally to the others. "_Okay. We'll enter through the sewer system._" She pointed to a manhole down the alley. "_And just to make sure. I'm Front._"

Understanding the talk, Erio answered. "_I'm Support._"

"_I'm the Defender._" Caro echoed.

The cyborg opened the manhole and immediately jumped inside, being followed by Caro, leaving Erio as the last to close again the hole. A map was produced from Kerykeyon, as the little summoner pointed the direction they should move.

* * *

"Where's this...?" The girl looked around in the darkness, that seemed somewhat familiar to her. She felt nostalgic when she realized that both her hands were rested on both sides of a familiar chair.

"This is where everything began." A voice came to her ears. It, too, was nostalgic to her. Something that she sought out through the years, but never knew what exactly was.

"You..." Her mind made the conection, but her mouth didn't answer her mind's pleads for it to continue working.

"Yes, Meister. Here's where I received my name. Here's where I lived through all these years. Here's where your will pulled me back when I was supposed to be destroyed. Here..." A silver haired woman appeared before the girl. "...inside your heart."

"Rein..." Hayate's voice broke, before she could finish, but she fought the cry wanting to make its way out of her body "...force."

"Yes, Meister." The woman smiled gently at the girl in front of her.

Hayate whimpered, before lounging forward and hugging the taller woman around the waist tightly, who in turn caressed her back and the back of her head. "Reinforce! Reinforce! Reinforce!"

The woman seemed exactly the same as she remembered. Her silver hair, her red eyes, her height... "Wait." The realization that something was odd finally came. "Why are you still so much more taller than..." She trailed off when she looked at herself. The sight of a nine year old body was what she perceived. "Why am I a kid again?"

Reinforce knelt in front of her mistress and placed a hand on her cheek, flashing a pained smile, before it came back to the gentle one. "Inside here, you're still a crippled child, ever since we parted. You didn't want to acknowledge that I needed to disappear... for your sake. Even if your mind told you it was better, your heart never truly gave up on me."

Hayate nodded. She felt her face getting wet by the tears flowing from her eyes, and the gentle hand stroking her back.

"That day..." The woman continued, measuring her words on the little girl. "I didn't disappeared completely. Your strong feelings towards me... Led me back to you... Since that day, I've been living here... Inside your heart..."

Hayate tried to stop her sobbing to say something, but her body wasn't answering her pleads. The more she fought back her tears, the more she wanted to feel the warmth and security of the embrace she was receiving.

"But..." Reinforce started soothingly, to ease the shock that her next statement was probably going to cause on the little girl. "That was a mistake from the start."

As if on cue, Hayate's sobs stopped and she pulled her head back, enough to see the older woman's face fully. "Why?" She asked with a shocked expression.

"I don't have a medium to exist anymore. Not on my own at least." The woman said wryly, not meeting Hayate's gaze. "I would continue to exist within you. We would continue to be a single being..."

"But... Reinforce..." Hayate tried again, but nothing seemed to come to her mind, as she talked to the older woman. The fact was the thought of having Reinforce back to her, was too good to be true. "That's wonderful." She managed to say at last.

The woman grimaced. "I... Don't think you understand." She sighed. "The Tome of the Night Sky doesn't exist anymore. If I continue to exist, the self-defense program would take over me again... That means, taking over you this time too. And we wouldn't be able to do anything against it..."

Hayate thought about the woman said for a few moments before resting her head against her chest. "That means... that to protect the rest of the dimensions... and our friends... we'll have to disappear...?"

Reinforce stopped a few moments then started. "Well..."

* * *

To say that the Three elders were baffled was the understatement of their long lives. "How..."

"I'll protect my Meister." The silverhaired turned to the group of people in front of her. "Whatever it takes." She said as a wave of magical energy enveloped all of them.

"Hayate!!!" Fate yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Hayate-chan!!!" Nanoha too, called her friends name at the same time. They hoped that they could at least reach the girl with their voices, but the sight that welcomed their screams was the red bands starting to draw a pattern over the silverhaired's body.

"Dimensional Rift, open." The voice from the Three Admirals thundered in the room. Nanoha and Fate both turned to them as they started to chant a spell. The three MidChildan sigils that created the makeshift Belkan sigil started to glow brightly before it formed a similar sigil in front of the trio. "Target: The Book of Darkness."

The chant continued, then both Aces heard a grunt behind them again. The silverhaired grimoire was on her knees. Her body language read that she was in pain, but her face was still plastered with the same stoic expression she wore the whole time. Nanoha turned back to the Three. "Stop! It's Hayate-chan there! It's not the Book of Darkness!" She cried.

"Forget it, Nanoha." Fate answered her, as the trio didn't seem to care about her words. "They already gave up on us, and if they can destroy us here, they can later say that they protected the world again, against the terrorists from Riot Six." She frowned at her own choice of words.

"Dimensional Destruction!" The Three called at last, creating a vortex of magical energy in front of the two Aces and the grimoire device.

"Flash Move!" Raising Heart called.

"Sonic Move!" Bardiche echoed, as both Aces moved away from the oncoming vortex of energy that was nearing them, flying to both sides of the trio casting the spell.

"STOOOOP!" Nanoha cried, as her device loaded three cartridges. Seeing that her pleads had fallen deaf on their ears she started to concentrate. "Excellion..."

"Trident Smasher!" Fate called from the other side, before Nanoha could complete her own spell. The yellow energy traveled the few paces that separated them, them collided heavily against an invisible dome that was protecting the trio.

Meanwhile the vortex was already sucking in the paralysed woman on the floor, as the tripointed sigil spun behind the vortex at a great speed.

"This spell... was created by the Belkans..." Mizetto started to lecture, panting at the amount of magical energy they were using to maintain the spell active. "It was this spell that sealed the pathway to Al Hazard."

"The Belkans themselves..." Ralgo said, the shockwaves of the earlier attack Fate used had blown his cap away from his head. "Feared the power of this spell, so they sealed it away."

"The knowledge of it was passed down from generation to generation, without ever being recorded." Fils continued. If the pressure of the combined spell was taking its toll on him, he didn't show at all. "We are the last ones who received this knowledge." He grimaced. "We have already accepted our fate."

* * *

"I was looking into the suggestion used on Nanoha." The librarian said to the window in front of him. "I couldn't shake the feeling I had already seen something similar before. It took me time to go into it. See this here?" He said, as a second window appeared in front of the Admiral. "Those aren't just symbols. They are old Belkan letters. If you discard the MidChildan letters and numbers, and the newer symbols, then a message appears."

The Admiral tried to read the message, but didn't understand too much. "What does the message says?"

"I'm not sure what is the content of this message." Yuuno continued. "But I saw this same characters before. In the registers about the Book of Darkness, when it was still known as Tome of the Night Sky. This sequence of characters... This message... It's the same command message that was used to activate the Tome before it was corrupted and started to activate by itself."

"Don't tell me..." Chrono already pieced together, but he couldn't believe it.

"It's possible. Since Hayate's Linker Core was merged with Reinforce, former Book of Darkness, former Tome of the Night Sky, it could awaken again."

"Wait. Why she didn't wake before then? We all saw this message when you played it to Nanoha before."

"Yes. The thing is, Hayate's Core was originally Reinforce's Core, or rather, Hayate's Core was merged with The Book of Darkness' one. Rein was born from Hayate's Core after this merge happened, so when Rein came to life, she received part of the original Reinforce's Core. When Hayate saw the message before, she wasn't in Unison with Rein. If they were to read that message again, while in Unison, it's possible that the original Reinforce would awaken again, since for all effects and purposes, while in unison, they have a single Core."

Chrono frowned. "Are you sure?"

"No." The bespectacled man answered honestly. "But we can't take the risk."

"Do you think the Admirals did that on purpose?"

"No idea. It could be, but the sequence was so jumbled, that I want to believe that it was just dumb luck."

"Or bad luck." The Admiral pointed. "How much time until you get to them?"

"About five more minutes." Yuuno grimaced. "The coordinates of the area around the HQ are all over the place. I had to finish the leap near Riot Six."

"Anything I can help with?"

"If you could convince the mages in the area to create a barrier around the HQ would be perfect."

"I'm not even supposed to be here, remember?"

"Unless you want another destruction similar or worse than what happened during the Jewel Seed Incident..."

"I'll see what I can do." Chrono said and was about to close the call when he saw the grimace on Yuuno's face. "What is it now?"

"Damn it!" The Librarian cursed. "Too late."

"What?" The Admiral looked at the screen dumbstruck for a few moments before waving his hand, popping another window with a air view of the Ground Forces HQ. "What the hell...?!"

Both of them watched, the librarian near the place and Chrono through the holoscreen, as the ball of black magical energy exploded on top of the building, destroying the upper floors.

* * *

"What fate?" Nanoha asked, but before they could answer the question, a red blurr exploded one of the windows of the room and crashed against the invisible forcefield that was protecting the trio, sizzling with the contact before visible cracks appeared on it.

"Break through!" They heard the familiar voice yell as the shield was destroyed and a red energy beam came from outside, exploding in the middle of the trio, sending them flying across the room. Vita positioned herself in between the Admirals and the silverhaired woman, as the other three Wolkenritter entered the building and positioned themselves beside her. The vortex that was closing on the silverhaired woman all but disappeared.

"Vita-chan!" Nanoha said.

"Signum!" Fate breathed out.

"We already know that she isn't our Master," Signum stated.

"But we know that she's inside there." Vita concluded.

Nanoha and Fate looked at them. "We'll take care of them. Take Hayate out of here." Fate said.

Signum nodded in understanding before turning back to the silverhaired woman. The grimoire was holding her head with both her hands. "Mast..." Signum started to say, but a shockwave of dark magical energy sent her sliding back, along with the others in the room. The energy gathered around the grimoire started to condense itself into a small ball in front of them.

"Get out of there!" Nanoha yelled as she recognized the wave pattern of the spell.

Immediately they all started to fly out of the room, before both Nanoha and Fate realized that the Three Admirals didn't move from their place. "You get out of here too!" She cried at the elders, but they didn't budge.

"They are unconscious." Fate stated the obvious to her, though the brunette couldn't actually see the trio.

The two of them flew back inside the room and got to them. Nanoha got Ralgo by his arm, lacing it around her neck, while the blonde caught the other two by their waists, then both darted out of the room while calling their move enhancing spells.

"Diabolic Emission!" Nanoha heard the grimoire call her spell behind her, while her Flash Move spell did its job in getting her away from the impact area of the spell.

Fate's Sonic Move, though it's speed dropped dramatically while she was carrying two people, also managed to get her away from the effect of the dreaded dark explosion of magical energy. The two flew down back to the ground, and away from the top of the building. Thankfully for them, the greater part of the debris from the top floors of the building that was destroyed during the attack had been pratically desintegrated.

"Why...?" Nanoha heard the voice of the General, weak and heavy. "Why... save us?"

"Do you really want to know?" The Ace of Aces said, while gritting her teeth. "We don't kill. We save." She repeated the same words that the Three said to Gaiz. "Consider this a thank you, for not killing my daughter back then."

"Why are you so battered? Signum's attack couldn't do this much damage..." Fate asked, while flying near them.

To her surprise, who answered was the woman she was carrying. "It's our fate, Fate-chan." Mizetto said. "The moment we started to cast that spell, our fate was sealed."

"That spell," Fils continued, as they finally reach the ground. "was feared by the Belkans for a reason. It doesn't use the magical energy from the caster's Linker Cores. It uses the Linker Cores themselves. Along with part of our lives."

"What!?" Nanoha said, as she put down the man on the ground. He remained in the same position Nanoha put him, without moving a single muscle.

"We said before... We'll do anything to protect the peace and the way of life of those who are under our care. This is the first and foremost thing in our minds at all times." Fils finished, after Fate put him on the ground. "I could explain better to you, but right now, I think I need to sleep a little." He closed his eyes.

"We all do..." Ralgo said, weakly.

"Someday we would need to own up for the decisions we made in the past..." Mizetto said, while smiling gently at the two Aces. "I'm glad that at least..." She didn't finished her sentence before closing her eyes.

Both girls didn't know what to feel at the moment. They had lost sight of what they wanted from the Three at the moment. They wanted the Three to pay for their crimes, but they didn't want them to die for them. The TSAB didn't have a death penalty, and that thinking combined with the Aces beliefs on justice, was the reason that they didn't want them to die. Even though Nanoha was angry at the Three, she didn't want them to die.

"I take it that they are already out of commission." The voice came from above them, and both girls instinctively looked up where the blonde librarian was hovering.

"They used a spell on Reinforce up there, but weren't able to finish it." Fate said.

"It was some ancient Belkan spell that would destroy Reinforce along with Hayate-chan, so the Wolkenritter stopped them," Nanoha sighed. "But the damage was already done."

"Did they get to Hayate?" Yuuno asked worried.

"No. The damage was already done to themselves." Fate took off. "Let's go back up there. Signum and the others won't be able to stop Reinforce if she goes out of control again. The explanations can come later."

"She's already out of control." Nanoha noted. "Her magical signature isn't Hayate's anymore. It's the same as the self-defense Program we fought back when we were nine." She undid the knot on the ribbons that were on her eyes, tieing her hair again.

Yuuno grimaced. The idea of reenacting that battle again wasn't anywhere near amusing to him. After the information processed completely in his mind, a dreaded though came. "I hope we can at least use the same strategy as back then."

The other two look at him confused. "Why not?" Fate asked.

"Back then, Reinforce managed to detach the Protection Program from herself and Hayate. We don't know if she'll be able to do that again." He said, flying directly upwards, in the direction they was seeing the multicolored beams of energy flashing.

To their surprise, there weren't four battling against the silverhaired. There was five.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter this time around. I'm having trouble with time lately (or lack thereof). A forewarning is in order, though. I'm going on a bussiness trip this week, and the next time I'll update any of the current stories will be after I get back.

After talking with some people about the content of this fic, I decided to rate it down to 'T', as the issues dealt with it, even if borderline to the rating, do not push it any further. So, if anyone hadn't read it yet because they were wary of possible 'mature' content, they can rest assured now that, at least in this story, it isn't going to happen.

Thanks for F91/00-Raiser for proofreading the story, and to the reviews I received until now from all of you. You guys are the reason why I keep writing. Keep'em coming.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Don't own anything here.

* * *

**Decisions**

**Chapter 12 - Battle**

**By Sniperk**

* * *

The three of them had already fought sixteen other mages on their way to the lab and, amazingly even for them, there were no injuries more severe than a few bruises and scratches. When they got to the lab itself, all that was left were technicians and other researchers. At the sight of the people exploding their way inside the big room, they ran towards the contrary end of it, some curling down in fear, other grabbing assorted junk on the ground to use as weapons to defend themselves against the incoming attack.

An attack that didn't come, as the three who entered the room were more interested in the machinery than with them.

"Do you think it was wise for us to do all this to get here?" Caro asked mentally to the other two.

"No." Subaru replied matter-of-factly. "But there was no way that those guys back there would let us pass peacefully." She turned to the panels on one of the walls. "You think they discovered something useful?"

"Maybe." The summoner answered back. "I'll need to ask Kerykeyon to scan it first to know."

Erio shifted his footing to face the people at the end of the room. "You don't need to be alarmed." He said as politely as his stance could suggest. "We're only here to find proof and to clear our names. We don't want to get in anymore fights, nor do we want to injure any of you."

He saw some of them, mostly women but a few men too, inch away from him despite his words. The others that were standing with pieces of steel pipes, bars, and wood, started to get more restless.

"Subaru-san," He sent mentally. "Do you think you can ask Mach Caliber to handle the scanning of this database?"

"I think it can." Subaru mused. "Why?"

He pointed with his head towards the group of people. "I think I'll need Caro to bind them if they attack. I don't want to hurt them."

Subaru looked at the people on the ground. "Okay." Then asked her device. "Mach Caliber. Connect with the database for me, please?"

"Alright." The gem on her rollerblade glowed twice before a few windows popped around her.

"Thanks." She looked through the windows. "Search string: Project F. Jail Scaglietti." While Subaru was scanning the database a few of the men did try to attack them, maybe thinking that they had better odds against two children, but they were rapidly suppressed by Erio and promptly binded by Caro. After a few more minutes and she had already copied the data they wanted, Subaru turned around to the other two. "Let's go. We already have what we were looking for." And they dashed out of the place.

* * *

"Chrono-kun!" The voice thundered in their communication links as soon as they were activated following the girl's orders. The Admiral didn't know what to think about the image he was seeing through his holoscreen, but the girl didn't give him time to brood over the issue. "The Self-Defense Program is almost at the critical point. We'll use the same tactic we used the last time. Beat it up, find the core and teleport it to space so you can destroy it using your ship's cannons. Is that alright?"

The raven haired man pieced together what little information he had at the moment, and decided to follow what Hayate was telling him. "Alright." He turned to his crew. "Prepare to fire the main cannon." He patted his pocket where the key for the Firing Lock System was kept while turning back to the girl on the screen. "We'll be ready in a few moments."

"Thanks." She turned back to the ones around her, while the dark magical energy condensed around the silver haired grimoire, starting to form a sphere similar to the one in their memories. The faces of her friends were still in disbelief, as the girl shouted orders to them. "The order will be almost the same as back then. Vita, Nanoha-chan, Signum, Fate-chan, me, then while Zafira buys us time, we'll finish with an all out attack. Yuuno-kun, do you think you can take over the binds alone?" When the man nodded she continued. "There are no new protections on the program so we should be able to finish it with more ease this time."

The Ace of the Sky was still watching the sphere finish forming itself around the grimoire before she looked back at her friend. "Erm..." Nanoha lifted her hand meekly. "When do you think you'll tell us what's happening, Hayate-chan?"

The, at the moment, blonde girl turned back to the brunette, but ignored the question. "Reinforce will plunder the defences of the Self Defence program from the inside. Let's force the battlefield out to open sea."

Nanoha looked around to the faces of the others. Aside from the Wolkenritter that seemed to understand everything perfectly and were carrying out the Commander's orders, Fate, Yuuno and herself where somewhat baffled by the turn of events. Several questions kept popping up in her mind, but in the end, it all boiled down to the task at hand, so she shook her head. "Fate-chan, Yuuno-kun. Let's go!"

She received understanding responses from both of them. The battle that was about to happen in the sky was bound to have effects on the ground below them, so Hayate's order to move the combat to the sea was correct.

"She's hitting critical mass." Hayate announced, and, as if to prove the girl's statement, the black sphere of energy enveloping the grimoire began to slowly erode creating cracks around it. "We have to position ourselves in formation."

"Okay." Was the general answer from the others.

Nanoha flew around the globe until she was in her position. "Hayate-chan..." She asked mentally.

"Yes?" The commander answered.

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you guys later."

"Promise?" Fate barged in the conversation, looking for a little more reassurance than what the tone of the Belkan Mage would suggest.

Hayate took a deep breath while answering. "Yes, I promise."

The others positioned themselves circling the globe of concentrated magical energy. "Chrono-kun." Hayate called through the comm. link.

The Admiral frowned. It really was weird being called that way by the girl, but he answered. "The barrier is up. You guys can go all out."

"Thanks." The commander answered while the others called back in understanding.

The time ticked by them as what to them seemed like a bomb was about to explode. Every second seemed to go longer than it should, raising the nervousness that every single one of them was feeling. When the time was up, the globe of energy shed its outer layer from the cracks, but it wasn't how they remembered. They watched in surprise as a woman with grey skin, demonic red eyeless orbs and white hair emerged from the disappearing sphere.

"What?" Nanoha was the one to voice the question that was popping to several of them.

"Why is she so small? Compared with last time, I mean." Fate asked.

"Last time we used Cores from several magical monsters to complete most of the Book." Signum said, grimacing at the memory.

"This time, it's using only the energy from my own Core." Hayate continued.

"It doesn't need that massive body to keep its energy stable." Shamal echoed.

Yuuno picked the explanation instantly. "Let's continue with out attack pattern. Since it just formed it should still be numb." Going against the librarian's prediction, the silver haired woman darted in the direction of the one most near her: Fate.

The blonde protected herself against the incoming attack with the shields on the tip of her extended device that was preparing her attack. The attack collided violently while Vita charged in with her hammer.

The red haired's attack sizzled against the silver haired's shield, sending jolts of energy through both their bodies.

"Barrier Burst." The grimoire called as its shield exploded and sent both its attacker and its target back a few paces.

"Divine Buster!" Nanoha called, and the blast of pink energy cut close enough to Vita that she could almost taste the magical energy caressing her cheek.

"Round Shield." The silver haired once again called, as the protection spell sprung to life in front of her extended right arm.

"Jet Zanbar!" The blonde cried as she lunged forward against the other redeye woman, that in turn blocked the attack with a small force field on her bare right hand, while her left grew a seemingly invisible blade that she used to attack Fate. The blonde immediately stopped her attack and positioned her device to parry the slash.

"Wha...?" Was all that could be heard from the blonde as she saw the sizzling grow on her device's handle in her hands. The others darted to the same direction as the two were in close combat, hoping to get in time to free the blonde from the force of her attacker. Vita was the first to get near enough to use her device's unusually lengthen hammer to knock the silver haired to the side, but the grimoire used the momentum of the movement to force its blade to cut through Bardiche's handle and slash a open wound on Fate's chest, through her barrier jacket.

Nanoha saw her friend's eyes lose their light as the girl's body began to dive. "Flash Move" Raising Heart called and Nanoha blurred out from her position fast enough to catch the blonde before she hit the water.

"Fate-chan! Fate-chan!" She called the blonde, trying to wake her in vain. She looked up and called the librarian. "Yuuno-kun. Can you heal her?"

Yuuno flew closer and examined the wound open in her chest, the battle with the grimoire all but forgotten to the two of them. "I can perform a few emergency treatments here, but she needs to go to a Medical Center immediately."

"Chrono-kun. Can you pull her up?" Hayate asked through the comm., while maintaining her position in between the combat that Signum engaged with the Self-Defence Program in the air and her three childhood friends.

"You guys are inside the barrier." The Admiral answered. "It's hard enough to pinpoint your location while standing in one place. While you're in midair it's simply impossible. If you put her on a trail of land or something, where we can track her exact position then I think we can."

Nanoha looked around to see if there was a boat or island around them, when she saw the same island from the day before where supposedly there was a Scaglietti hideout. "Yuuno-kun, there." She pointed, and both of them darted to the island.

Meanwhile, Vita had just hammered the shields of the program for the nth time, finally managing to break enough layers of the shields. Signum saw the shield starting to regenerate and called her device to snake form, attacking with it and hitting directly what was supposed to be the flesh of the silver haired, cutting open a wound on her arm, almost slicing it off in the process.

The wound regenerated almost immediately, for the disbelief of the little Belkan Knight. "Damn it." She charged in again, hammering in the direction of the recently regenerated wound on the grimoire's arm, that in turn, deflected the attack and was about to slice with her sword when a white bind caught it before it could harm Vita.

"I'll not let you hurt them so easily." The blue wolf guardian shouted.

In that instant the pink haired Belkan knight's voice was heard. "Purple Lightning Flash!" She past right through the grimoire, cutting its body deeply again.

They saw the cut start to regenerate, but it seemed to have stopped midway. The energy that had gathered around the wound to regenerate it was dispersing itself. It didn't stop the process completely, but it was recreating itself at a much slower rate than before. Then she opened again, glaring at the beast in front of her and yelled. "Get out of here you three!"

They looked at their mistress and immediately flew sideways and away from the line of fire from Hayate's spell being targeted at them. The grimoire saw the spell being concentrated and darted in her direction but it was stopped midway, as if it had collided against an invisible wall.

Hayate closed her eyes and whispered. "Thanks, Reinforce." Then she opened her eyes again and called. "Ragnarok!" The three beams of energy flew from each of the points of the Belkan Sigil above her and traveled the distance between them fast enough to make sure the grimoire couldn't dodge or defend against the attack. The explosion sent shockwaves through the air, pushing the others in the air several yards back.

Without much of a forewarning they heard another attack being called, anger clearly in the tone, and the five pink balls of light firing at the grimoire with a power even greater than Hayate's earlier attack. They felt the stronger shockwave before even the words "Starlight Breaker" could reach their ears. The onslaught of pink energy continued during several moments that seemed to never pass to them. They couldn't see Nanoha, hidden behind the energy sphere on the tip of her device, but they could imagine how the girl was feeling at that moment.

When the attack finally receded, the grimoire was nothing more than a limp body floating amidst them.

The rest of the battle was as anticlimactic as it could have been in the situation. Yuuno was the first to regain his composure and immediately started to cast his teleport spell, followed shortly after by Shamal. The Lady of Lakes redirected the spell to the Core of the program and it was teleported just in front of the Claudia.

Chrono, still in shock with the situation Fate was in, almost missed his turn in the battle, snapping out of his reverie only when one of his operators voiced that the teleportation was almost completed. He ordered the cannon to be prepared and fired the final shot against the grimoire

The explosion could be seen from the atmosphere, in a flash of light that seemed to want to continue in the sky for as long as it could, as if a second sun was now making company for the two moons. Then it faded completely, taking all signs of life in that area with it.

But, at this point, nothing else seemed to register to the twin tailed brunette. The image of her daughter flashed through her mind followed by that of her friend. A smile danced back on her lips before she started to fall, unconscious, several bruising covering her body, and other cuts, new and old, opened by the spell she performed. She didn't fell in the sea because Zafira caught her on his back in time. There was too much to explain now, and too much to be explained later. Not to mention that there were several injuries to be patched, including two of the three Aces.

* * *

She was walking down an aisle of her home, looking out the windows to the garden where an orange puppy was woofing while jumping and dashing around, playing with something invisible from where she was standing. Her home hallways were bigger than what they were supposed to be, but looking at herself, she decided that it was something to be expected given her small framed body.

She walked the rest of the endless hallway and knocked on her mother's bedroom door. When no answer came she walked inside the room to call for the woman directly, but she wasn't on her bed. She looked around, inside the bathroom annex, and around the study to no avail.

The girl turned around again to leave the room, deciding that her mother wasn't there, but when she touched the doorknob something hit her on her back, and an excruciating pain flared while she leaned on the door as to not fall to the ground. She turned around to look what had hit her, and she saw her mother.

A whip in hand, and an angry voice shouting at her, calling her names. She thought about leaving that room when she realized that she wasn't in her mother's room anymore. She was tied by her wrists by ropes in one of the larger rooms of her home while being whipped by her mother.

Another slash, another sharp pain flared on her torso. She closed her eyes, and only hoped that that nightmare could end soon, so she could finally see the caring eyes her mother cast at her when she was younger. One more slash. More pain.

Only this time, the pain was somewhat misplaced. She wasn't exactly feeling the pain of the slash on her back, but on her chest. She dared to open her eyes as she felt the prickle on her arm. There was an intravenous there, dripping a colorless liquid.

She took to her surroundings, finding the familiar white ceiling of a hospital room. She tested her body to see if she could move her arms and legs, the recent memories of the battle passing through her mind as she felt her heart rage in her chest. Then she looked at a couch in the room where her best friends and her surrogate daughter were sleeping against each other, and a smile couldn't help but to crept on her face. Nanoha serving as a pillow for both smaller girls on each side was a sweet sight.

But something was odd. For a moment she thought that her hazy mind was making her see things and she felt that something was off about what was in front of her. She shook her head and scratched her eyes, before looking at them again, finally understanding what was wrong. Hayate. What happened to her?

* * *

A/N: Yeah. I haven't been updating this since forever. I'll leave just this here for now (since I had it done since forever and forgot to post) and finish CaD first, then come back to this one.

I know some things apparently don't make sense for now, but trust me (please) I'll get around to explain later. (I think... I hope...)

Thanks again for F91 for beta'ing this.


End file.
